Beijing Today (October 13, 2006)

BEIJING TODAY

Hoping the poor are not always with us.

Page 8

Another doctorate for Dr Kissinger.

Page 9

Changes made in population policy

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International stars to grace city’s biggest marathon

FRIDAY OCTOBER 13 2006 NO. 280 CN11-0120 HTTP://BJTODAY.YNET.COM

CHIEF EDITOR: JIAN RONG NEWS EDITOR: HOU MINGXIN DESIGNER: YANG GEN

Happy days in the doghouse.

Page 6

Plane crashes into New York skyscraper A small airplane crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York yesterday.

Two people died in the crash, including Yankees baseball pitcher, Cory Lidle. A law enforcement official in Washington said the player was an avid pilot. Christine Monaco, a New York spokeswoman for the FBI, said there was no indication of terrorism.

Photo by Dax Gardner

By Huang Daohen More than 25,000 runners are expected to flock to Tiananmen Square this Sunday for the start of the 10th Asian Marathon Championships.

Organizers are predicting that around one million people will line the streets to cheer on the runners, with millions more watching the event on TV. The marathon will start at 8am in Tiananmen Square and loop anti-clockwise around the Third Ring Road to the Olympic Center, passing through Xicheng, Haidian and Chaoyang districts.

Among the 25,000 runners will be top athletes and record holders from around the world, including stars Raymond Kipkoech and Pamela Chepchumba from Kenya.

The event was first held in 1981 and accredited by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) in 2004.

Since then it has grown into one of the most popular events on the international marathon circuit.

There are four events this year: a mini marathon, an 8km run, a half marathon, and a full marathon at a distance of around 42km.

According to Beijing police, around 12 road sections will be closed off during the races, including the road to the east of the square, Nanchizi Nankou, Xuezhi Bridge and Beichen East Road in the north of the city.

Nomad days in Labrang.

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October 13 2006

News

2

Massive cash boost for transport and environment

By Gan Tian Government chiefs have announced plans to invest close to 500 billion yuan on improving Beijing’s transportation network and environment.

The announcement, by Beijing’s Development and Reform Commission, was made on Sunday as part of the city’s eleventh Five-year Plan.

More than 470 billion yuan

will be invested in around 2,400 projects across the city covering everything from transportation to the environment.

City chiefs claim the investment will help to cut 85 percent of commutes down to a maximum of 50 minutes, cutting traffic and freeing up parking space for cars.

The funding will also help to bankroll an extra four subway lines

to be completed by 2010, on top of the four subway lines being built for the 2008 Olympics. A 40-kilometer road network will also be finished, including 14 radiating roads and three ring roads. Every district will be connected with a highway that will reach a total length of 16,000 kilometers.

Part of the cash will also be used to fund another Beijing to Tianjin ‘super highway’ allow-

ing passengers to arrive at their destination within half an hour.

Beijing Capital International Airport will be enlarged with an eventual capacity of 60 million passengers.

The city’s polluted water will be treated with 14 sewage works being built in the city’s outskirts and a 700km pipeline pumping clean water from the Yangtze River.

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Hou Mingxin Qiu Jiaoning Designer: Zhao Yan

E-mail:houmingxin@ynet.com

More cash and fewer deaths over ‘Golden Week’

By Han Manman China’s weeklong National Day holiday, one of the nation’s three ‘golden weeks’, has given a resounding boost to the city’s economy.

Beijing received 4.32 million visitors over the seven days, 1.8 percent up from last year. Income generated by tourists topped 3.6 billion yuan, according to the municipal vocation office.

The Ministry of Commerce said that China’s gross consumer goods retail sales hit 300 billion yuan over the Golden Week holiday, a 14.5 percent increase on last year.

Cell phones, LCD TV sets, digital products, jewels and clothes were the most popular buys over the holiday period.

This year’s National Day holiday was special because it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of China’s most important festivals, which fell on October 6. As a result, more people traveled to family reunions to celebrate the festival and many new couples chose to hold their weddings over the holiday.

In Beijing alone some 20,000 weddings were held around the holiday period, according to the China Committee of Wedding Service Industries.

Restaurants also reported a 30 percent rise in customers compared to last year and even more than during the Spring Festival.

Golden Week kept China’s railways very busy. From September 28 to October 7, the railways carried a record 42.13 million people, 3.68 million more than the same period last year, according to statistics from China’s Ministry of Railways.

No passenger casualties were reported during Golden Week.

Trains ran in a steady, orderly fashion, with 99.8 percent on schedule, the ministry said.

As for accidents, figures from the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) indicate that 68 accidents were reported and 234 people were killed over the holiday period, three accidents and 75 deaths less than last year.

Groundwater get-together ponders precious resource

By He Jianwei More than 500 scientists and researchers from 56 countries met in Beijing this week for the 34th Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH).

The theme of the conference was the status and future of groundwater. China’s Ministry of Land and Resources jointly hosted the conference with the IAH. Sessions at the conference saw discussions of groundwater quality, safety and contamination recovery, and its management in the context of rural and urban development.

A letter from Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan was read during the opening ceremony, congratulating the IAH on its 50th anniversary and welcoming conference participants. Zeng’s letter said that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the development and protection of water resources, and will make their appropriate use and protection of the environment key components of national development strategy.

Time to walk your socks off

Experts speak out to preserve Tibetan culture

By Qiu Jiaoning More than 100 delegates from 12 countries have exchanged their ideas on the preservation and development of Tibetan culture at the First Tibetan Culture Forum that opened in Beijing on Tuesday.

The forum is made up of four sections including forum exchanges, a Tibetan culture exhibition, Beijing visit and a Tibet field study. Experts on Tibetan studies from America, Britain, India, Nepal, Denmark, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Thailand, Germany and Japan will travel to the Tibet Autonomous Region on the QinghaiTibet Railway after the meeting in Beijing.

A Tibetan culture exhibition

will also be held at the Beijing Capital Museum from October 10 to 22. More than 300 items will be displayed at the exhibition including over 100 photos, over 200 pieces of Tibetan medicine, traditional art, architecture, sculptures, religious figures and Buddhist objects.

“The Chinese government has invested large amounts of manpower, material and financial resources to protect and develop Tibetan culture,” claimed the vice-president of the China Association for the Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture (CAPDTC) at a press conference on Tuesday.

The government claims to have invested around 700 mil-

lion yuan since the 1980s to renovate damaged Tibetan buildings including the Potala Palace, Norbulingka, the Sakya Temple and the Jokhang Temple.

The number of monasteries and practicing monks and nuns has increased dramatically since the 1970s. Tibet is now home to 1,787 religious sites, 46,000 monks and nuns and 358 living Buddhas.

“The government keeps carrying out various effective measures to discover and rescue heritage sights that are facing being lost, for instance, the extensive relics surveys and numerous collections and compilations on folk work have been developed,” insisted the vice-president.

World universities tour for China business

By Chen Shasha The ‘China Education Expo 2006’ will be held on Saturday and Sunday at the China World Trade Exhibition Hall in Beijing.

More than 450 universities from 30 countries will attend the exposition, according to Zong Wa, the director of the China Education Association for International Exchange, As it is the ‘Year of Russia in China’, 53 Russian universities

will come to the exposition for the first time. Spain will send 28 delegates from 28 universities, the largest number the country has ever sent to the exposition.

Twenty-eight of Japan’s top universities will also attend.

According to JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization), there are 80,000 Chinese students in Japan, the largest proportion of international students in the country.

The UK Pavilion will contain

more than 50 institutions from all education sectors, including higher education, further education, language schools and arts and design institutions. A special desk with staff from the British Council and the British Embassy will be set up to provide information about IELTS (the International English Language Testing System). UK alumni will also be present to answer questions and share their experience of studying in the UK.

By Chu Meng The 25th Beijing International Long Distance Walk Carnival, which is open to people of all ages and fitness levels, kicks off at Chaoyang Park on October 21.

Unlike the furious competition that weighs on every athlete at the Olympic Games, the event which was set up since 1981 is exactly what it sounds like: a noncompetitive gathering of people interested in participation rather than winning.

Liu Jian, from the organizer, China Communist Youth League Beijing Committee, said at the press conference, “There are no prizes, place standings, or medals to vie for. The only challenge is finding out what you can achieve and how much further you can go.”

The walk route spans 21 kilometers and all the participants will follow a set route. For the first five kilometers walkers will need to stay in order. After this distance, however, walkers are free to walk any way they choose with whomever they wish.

To sign up for the long distance walk, call the organizers on 85801241/42/43/44.

Linguistic luvin’

By Chu Meng Beijingers will put their linguistic skills to the test tomorrow at the launch of the fifth Beijing Citizen Speaking Foreign Languages Carnival.

The two-day event will be held at the Working People’s Culture Palace. Foreign language fans will get the chance to chat with experts from top educational institutions across the country about problems encountered while learning, taking examinations and applying for overseas study. They can also practice their speaking skills with foreign experts, professors and officials from embassies. There will also be a number of lectures and an English corner.

October 13 2006

By Annie Wei Quan Lei, a young star with Dalian Shide, 2005 Super League champions and China’s most successful football team, is critically ill in hospital after being stabbed last week outside his own home.

Quan, 21, was assaulted by a number of men as he got out of his car, and was stabbed more than ten times. Doctors at Dalian No 3 Hospital, where Quan is undergoing treatment, say he was stabbed four times in his thigh, and that wounds elsewhere ruptured his intestines.

Football in China has been dogged by international underachievement and domestic scandal, including gambling, match-fixing, and several assaults on players. The attack on Quan is the sixth such incident in the last two years.

Quan Lei will probably never play professionally again, doctors say, but as a full-time footballer his overall fitness gives him a good chance of recovery despite the seriousness of his injuries.

Rumors are rife on the Internet as to the reason Quan was attacked, but police have yet to comment. They are mounting a heavy guard around Quan’s hospital bed. A source at China’s Football Association said that if police confirm the assault is related to gambling, the association will investigate.

The source also said that football in China was struggling to maintain public credibility in the face of poor performances on the field and violence and gambling off it.

Lin Lefeng, general manager of Dalian Shide, said the club would pay Quan’s medical expenses.

China’s population policy had enjoyed success in the past, but new problems had emerged, including women’s education, a gender imbalance, and a large number of births of children with congenital physical defects.

Zhao said that the policy in urban areas of limiting couples to a single child had meant only children often faced a heavy burden

later in life of caring for their parents and two sets of grandparents. In the countryside, the policy of limiting family size had not always been followed, with many people having more children than regulations permit.

Last month, Beijing government said couples where both partners were only children could have a second child if they wished.

A visit to the uncanny valley

Traditional restaurant wants to be a cut above

The 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems was held at the International Convention Center on October 11. A charming ‘lady’ appeared at the conference, even wikking at the audience.

CFP Photo

An open space for art and culture

By Jackie Zhang Songzhuang Town, in suburban Tongzhou District east of downtown Beijing, is home to thousands of artists, and fast becoming a center of the city’s art scene.

The Second Songzhuang Culture and Art Festival, which is now on and will run until next Monday, has displays of photographs, sculptures, and paintings by dozens of artists. The Festival was organized by the government of Songzhuang Town and Songzhuang Art Promotion Agency.

During the festival, visitors

can see artists at work in their studios, and get a taste of their living and working environment. The 150 open studios are dotted all around Songzhuang, and include courtyard galleries and women’s art spaces.

A new Songzhuang Art Center opened to coincide with the start of the Festival. It is currently housing a photographic exhibition with pictures taken all over China over the past several decades. Visitors can see images of social change and everyday life during China’s rise to modernity. The show includes pic-

tures that were on display at the recent Pingyao International Photography Festival.

Other events showcase architecture, Chinese wash paintings and sculpture.

Well-known art critic Yang Wei has worked as designer for the Festival, giving it the theme of ‘Open Songzhuang.’ He explains, “Open means a kind of releasing inside and introducing new things from the outside. Songzhuang should be a platform open to the public. We want to give people a freer atmosphere to develop.”

China-Europe Performing Arts Meeting to be held in Beijing

By Chu Meng The biggest European network for contemporary performing arts is organizing the first China-Europe Performing Arts Symposium in the city, giving artistes an opportunity to learn from and about each other.

This meeting, which includes lectures and round table discussions, will bring Chinese and Euro-

pean performing arts professionals together in an informal setting, in the hope of encouraging mutual understanding, artistic exchange, and interaction about recent developments and future perspectives in theater and dance.

Over 100 theater directors, venue managers, festival directors, dance and theater company directors and artists from Europe

are coming to Beijing to meet Chinese counterparts.

The meeting will take place from 12 to 16 October in the 21st Century Theater in Beijing. It is organized by IETM, the International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts and CAPA, the Chinese Performing Arts Association, in close collaboration the British Council and a number of

other arts councils from Europe, and Chinese organizations such as the Beijing Modern Dance Company, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and Belgium-based Theatre in Motion.

During the meeting, Beijing will see an unprecedented number of Chinese and international theater and dance performances.

By Gan Tian A local restaurant has given wait staff some unusual new hairstyles in a bid to drum up trade.

The Jingweijing on Changchunjie is a historic restaurant specializing in traditional Beijing cuisine, but the waiter’s haircuts are a more recent innovation.

Staff have various words or characters shaved on their heads, including ‘OK’ and the character for noodles. Manager Song Zhangguo said, “So many Beijing cuisine restaurants end up with a very similar style. We wanted to do something special, so I designed all these hair styles. It’s been quite a success, we’re finding we’re getting lots more customers.”

Song said it’s not all fancy new styles at the Jingweijing. Waiters dressed in traditional gowns and using the capital’s unique dialect add to the strong local flavor.

Brief news Fewer fires during holidays Beijing Fire Bureau dealt with 122 reported fires during the national day holiday week, 25 fewer than the same period last year.

Beijing registered population 11.8 million The Beijing Statistics Bureau, has released figures giving the registered urban population of Beijing at year end 2005 as 11.8 million, with a further 3.6 million people holding temporary residency, mostly migrant workers.

Tax take up The State Administration of Taxation said on Tuesday China’s tax revenue for the first nine months this year was 2,842 billion yuan, a 22.5 percent increase over the same period last year.

Growth of 10.5 percent forecast China’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to rise by 10.5 percent in 2006, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(By Gan Tian)

Editors: Hou Mingxin Qiu Jiaoning Designer: Zhao Yan

Soccer star in stabbing shock

National Population and Family Planning Commission, told a meeting in Shenyang this week that in future population and family planning policy will move away from simply limiting family size to more overall planning.

Overall planning would be aimed at promoting education, law, technology and good public order, said Zhao. He added that

BEIJING TODAY

By Annie Wei China is famed for being the world’s most populous nation, but population issues here are not limited to its overall size alone.

Concerns about education levels, age and gender structure, internal and international migration, and crime and public order have risen in recent years.

Zhao Baige, deputy head of the

By Huang Daohen Tongzhou district government is sponsoring a Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Cultural Festival, to be held at the canal cultural square harbor on October 15 and 16. The event aims to inform visitors about the history and culture associated with the canal, and to give a boost to leisure, tourism and cultural businesses associated with it Although based mainly in Tongzhou, the impact of the festival is expected to reach more than 70 cities and counties along the canal.

There will be a number of events during the festival, including arts and book fairs, a Metro Planning Exhibition and Symposium, and exhibitions of canal-themed painting and calligraphy.

A replica of a historical canal boat, over 54 meters long, has been built specially for the festival. The boat will play a part in the festival’s opening ceremony, and then go on public display.

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News

Changes made in population policy

Tongzhou pushes boat out for canal festival

October 13 2006

When single-child families lose their kids

Focus

4

Parents share stories of their lost children

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Hou Mingxin Zhao Hongyi Designer: Zhao Yan

Talking through it

Star Port Star Port was named because in almost all the single-child families in China, the kids are the shining stars who give light and happiness to the family. “We think that even though our kids died, they remain as stars in our hearts,” said Yuan Liyan. Now, more than 140 families have joined Star Port.

They gathered to spend midautumn day in a village. “At first, we couldn’t help missing our children.

We climbed a mountain, shouted their names and cried. But later at night, we held some activities, dancing and singing,” Yuan Liyan said. According to her, some new members of Star Port didn’t join the dancing at first. They just sat in a corner. “They need time and help.

It’s quite hard to struggle from sadness on your own,” Yuan said.

Apart from traveling, they visit sick kids in hospital and youth criminals every month. “We helped other miserable people, and saved ourselves in the same time,” said Ke Bin, who lost her 19-year-old daughter in 2003. She claimed that the members of the Star Port always look forward to the next activity.

All the parents in Star Port have outside jobs, according to Yuan

By Chen Shasha Yuan Liyan, a Shanghai office worker couldn’t help crying when she mentioned her only son - Long Long, who died of cancer aged 26 in January, 2002. “It has been four years, but my heart still hurts...I felt the whole world shift when he passed away...” Yuan said.

Yuan is not the only mother who has lost her only child. Figures from Shanghai Fushouyuan cemetery show that around 10 single-child families in Shanghai lose their children every day. In China, more than 160,000 families lost their only children in 2006, according to Zhang Weiqing, vice-director of National Population and Family Planning Committee.

“I know I should keep focused on being happy, but the whole family changed when he died,” Yuan Liyan said. She didn’t know how she would go on. So she and others who shared her experiences established an organization named ‘Star Port’ in 2003.

Liyan. They serve their companies during daytime, and work for Star Port after office hours. “We need each other, and we work for free,” Yuan said.

This year is the 24th anniversary of China’s family planning policy, issued as a basic national policy by the 12th People’s Congress in 1982. But single-child families were appearing as early as 1976, when China’s government started to implement policy of ‘One family, one child’.

Li Qirui, who organized a similar organization to Star Port in Xi’an, had his only son in 1976.

Although giving birth to a second child was allowed at that time, he persuaded his wife to have sterilization operation as soon as his son was born. But last year, his son died of an incurable disease. “Sometimes we blame ourselves...we followed the national policy and didn’t give any brothers or sisters to our kids...we worked hard from day until night and left our kids alone at home...when we finally had time, they had gone...” Yuan Liyan said.

However, both she and Li Qirui believe the single-child policy has contributed to humanity, and the only problem is how to help those families who have lost children.

Difficulties When new members join Star Port, old members used to have a chat with them. “We always cry together,” Yuan Liyan said. But now, Zhu Xiaoming, who also lost his kids and then went to study psychology, acts as psychologist in Star Port. Sometimes, Star Port invites professional psychologists to make speeches, but “Many parents say they are not as helpful as Zhu,” Yuan Liyan said.

“Many parents commit suicide after their children die,” Yuan Liyan said. Every month, Yuan Liyan and other organizers of Star Port visit members, as many still struggle under the weight of debt from when their children were in hospital. According to Beijing Red Cross, the fees for a cancer patient often exceed 100,000 yuan. With leukaemia, one sick child needs at least 250,000 yuan to cure the disease.

However, Beijing Statistics Bureau shows that the average income of Beijing residents has only just passed 10 thousand from January to August, 2006.

In some large cities in China, heath insurance for children has been set up as part of social insurance system. Each child gives 50-60 yuan every year and then their par-

Stars

ents still need to pay 50 percent of medical fees when they go into hospital. However, a large percentage of people cannot afford bear the expense of serious disease.

“My daughter said she didn’t want to stay in hospital anymore.

She had lymphatic cancer. She knew we had spent a lot of money on her treatment, so she often worried about us,” Zheng Wei, who lost his only daughter in 2004, said.

Now, both Zheng Wei and Yuan Liyan have reached retirement age, but they still work hard. Yuan has suggested a special room for those who have lost their children at the old people’s home where she lives.

Change In January 2006, a Shanghai charity foundation gave one million yuan to Star Port. It allows for the long-term development of the organization. Besides, a memorial was opened free for the dead children in Fushouyuan Cultural Memorial Park, together with a memorial of 60 famous people from Shanghai’s history.

Parents in Star Port bring photos, toys, books and even medals to the memorial. Yuan Liyan said she felt happy for her son to ‘live’ there. Many parents in Star Port share the same feeling

with Yuan. Gao Fulai, an artist who gave up painting for three years after his only daughter died, took up his brush again and designed the memorial.

National policies have changed too. In 1985, China’s Family Planning Policy allowed villagers to have a second child if their first child was girl. In 2004, Shanghai Population and Family Planning Committee issued new policy which allowed a second child if the couple all come from single-child families. In some large cities like Beijing, single-child family who lost their children will be given 5,000 yuan when both of the couples retired.

As Ma Qiuli said, there are still many problems for those single-child families. Mu Guangzong, professor of the Institute of Population Research of Beijing University said the single-child families face a lot of special difficulties: how can parents live if their only kids die? What will happen when young couple from two singlechild families has to take care of six old relatives? Will parents send their only children to war?

He suggests that the government not only consider the education of only-children, but also the risk their families face in the future.

October 13 2006

Interview with the reporter: I wrote this report because I was surprised at the first glance by the massive purchasing power of Beijing residents.

I’m also worried about the heavy pollution, which is already a serious problem in the capital.

Cars can both improve our standard of living and degrade our quality of life.

Finding a solution is a top priority, especially with the Olympic Games coming.

Administrative measures are not the fundamental solution. Neither can we stop such a development. Science and culture might be key.

— Anil K. Joseph, PTI Beijing

Cars are narrowing the space for pedestrianss on Beijing streets.

CFP Photo

Reuters invests US$10 mln in Beijing Beijing, October 9 (Reuters) – Global news and information company Reuters Group opened a development center in Beijing for key products such as its 3000Xtra desktop terminal and said it expected to triple the operation’s staff to 600 in three years.

The center, located in the capital’s technology hub of Zhongguancun, will also input data related to mergers and acquisitions, company financial reports and forecasts, and economic data for markets in China, South Korea and Japan, Reuters said in a statement.

Reuters said it had invested

around US$10 million in the facility as of September.

“This investment underscores our commitment to China and our desire to participate in its future as a global leader in technology and financial markets,” Chief Executive Tom Glocer said in the statement.

Expert commentary: Reuters announced the initiative during a visit by Tom Glocer, its chief executive. It’s a milestone both for its business in China and China’s media industry.

The center will focus on collecting economic and business information. This shows the increasing dynamism and global importance of China’s economy and business.

The center also covers South Korea and Japan, which is an

important indication that Beijing is catching up as a world political and information center.

More importantly, Reuter’s investment in Beijing this time reminds us of the great potential of Beijing, as well as China, in the global news, media and information industry.

— Chen Baoshen, senior researcher, Institute of Media Research, Chinese Academy of Social Science

Reuters’ step is expected to push the local information industry.

Photo by sina.com

China needs daily pollution fines, official says

A quarter of the Yangtze River and most of the Yellow River are heavily polluted. CFP Photo

Beijing, October 7 (Reuters / news.com.au) – China should slap daily fines on firms that pump untreated waste into lakes and rivers, because current penalty limits make long-term pollution profitable, an official has said.

Normally, fines for pollution are capped at 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) regardless of how long a factory ignores pollution regulations, the China Daily said.

China’s per-capita water resources are less than a third of the global average and falling, and its problems are compounded by chronic pollution, waste and poor management.

Around 300 million people lack access to safe drinking water.

A daily charge would give companies an economic incentive to clean up their waste, the paper

quoted Mao Rubai, chairman of the Environmental and Resources Protection Committee of China’s parliament, as having said.

“The punishment should be calculated from the day that a factory is found guilty of pollution discharge until the day its emissions meet environmental protection requirements,” Mr Mao said.

His views were backed by a study by China’s State Environmental Protection Agency, which has suggested daily fines of 40,000 yuan up to 100,000 yuan.

Severe pollution is increasingly sparking unrest and protests in rural areas, where the environment has all too often been sacrificed for profit – worrying the government and prompting repeated promises of cleanups.

Interview with the editor: I personally have never heard of a daily pollution fine system like that suggested in practice.

I think it would involve a heavy workload and not be practical to adopt. A frequent checking and fining system might work better.

But it also tells us something about the seriousness of environmental pollution in China.

We also have pollution problems in Australia. We have found hazardous waste dumped into the sea and are trying to do something on that.

— Stephan Davis, editor, PlanetArk.org

Beijing, October 12 (Xinhua) – Beijing plans to build 110,000 affordable houses with a total floor space of 8 million square meters before 2008.

Beijing Housing Construction Plan for 2006-2010 says that Beijing will provide 210,000 affordable housing units with floor space of 15 million square meters to meet the housing demands of vast number of middle and low income families.

Some 110,000 units will be built before 2008.

In 2005, affordable housing covering 3.558 million square meters of floor space were built.

The plan also proposes affordable houses should not be sold by the owner on market but bought back by the government in order to fight speculation.

Stipulating the size for the first time, the plan called for one bedroom apartment to be around 40 square meters, and two-bedroom apartments about 60 square meters.

Beijing’s housing prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Half of the new apartments in August sold for more than 9,000 yuan (US$1,125) per square meter.

The current average selling price of affordable house is less than 4,000 yuan (US$500) per square meter, said an official with the Beijing Construction Commission.

Beijing to build easier, faster, cleaner transport

Beijing, october 12 (Xinhua) – Beijing will build more subway lines and a city rail track as well as fast bus routes so that traveling in Beijing will be easier, faster, safer and cleaner.

By 2008, three more subway lines and one light rail track linking the city to the airport will be complete and will service the Olympic venues directly. Another four lines, including some extensions to existing lines and a new line out to Yizhuang Development Zone, southeast of Beijing, will be completed by 2010.

Beijing authorities plan to build 14 fast straight roads and three fast loop roads that will crisscross the whole city. There will be a few north-south and east-west main roads linking both sides of the city. It is expected that public transportation will carry approximately 40 percent of commuters every day.

Beijing’s another ambition is to ensure every motor vehicle has a parking space. There will be more public parking spaces available in the city while in suburban areas, people can park their cars and then change to public transportation.

Beijing has 12 million permanent residents and a migrant population of over three million.

Outlook

ment Bureau said.

Almost 1,000 new cars hit the road every day in the capital, which brings attendant problems.

Apart from the consequences for air quality and commuter time, some experts warn that these new cars might cause difficulties during the Olympics in 2008.

Beijing citizens will not be allowed to park at Olympic venues to avoid traffic congestion during the 2008 Games.

Beijing will also introduce vehicle exhaust monitoring devices in a bid to control harmful emissions, which are believed to contribute half the city’s air pollution, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection.

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Ningbo also appear in the top ten list of car-owning cities.

Editors: Hou Mingxin Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Beijing, October 5 (PTI) – People in Beijing buy more cars than their counterparts in any other Chinese metropolis. The number of cars in the capital city has now reached 2.7 million.

Beijing registered 155,936 vehicles in the first six months of the year, seven percent of the national total.

The increase brings the total number of registered vehicles in Beijing to over 2.7 million. The number is surging 15 percent annually, Xinhua news agency reported.

Chasing the capital in the congestion stakes, China’s financial hub Shanghai and northern port city of Tianjin registered more than 80,000 and 60,000 automobiles respectively, the survey by Beijing-based Polk-Catarc Vehicle Information Consulting Company and the Beijing Traffic Manage-

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BEIJING TODAY

Beijing registers more new cars than any other Chinese city

Beijing to build more affordable houses before 2008

October 13 2006

Business

6

Social security fund picks oversea managers

By Huang Daohen The National Council for Social Security Fund (NCSSF) has selected its first batch of fund managers, Citigroup (CITI) and Northern Trust (NTRS), to look after the state-run pension funds overseas investments. Xiang Huaicheng, chairman of NCSSF revealed on the signing ceremony held at Diaoyutai State Guest-

house on October 9.

The council, according to Xiang, launched the selection of overseas trustees by the end of April, after the State Council, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor and Social Security had jointly issued the ‘Temporary Regulation for National Social Security Fund Overseas Investments’ in March. Around 80

overseas fund management companies, investment banks and securities firms applied to become overseas investment managers.

The Ministry of Finance has charged the national social security fund with managing funds intended to pay for the costs of China’s aging population. Toward that aim, the social security fund has been cleared to invest abroad

where returns are higher and can be less volatile.

Xiang hoped that the two trust firms keep close cooperation and provide a reliable platform for the National Social Security Fund’s overseas investment business.

The social security fund had total assets of 211.79 billion yuan at the end of 2005, up 40.64 billion yuan from the end of 2004.

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Hou Mingxin Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Woman on top of the rich list Shanghai, October 11 (AFP) – A female scrap paper merchant worth US$3.4 billion has been named China’s wealthiest person, the first time a woman has topped the annual rich list.

Zhang Yin, 49, leapt to the number one spot from 36 last year after her company, Nine Dragons Paper, was listed in Hong Kong in March, according to the Hurun rich list compiled by Shanghai-based accountant Rupert Hoogewerf and released Wednesday.

Zhang made her money from recycling scrap paper brought in from the US and processed in China for the retail sector.

Described as a self-made woman, she is now richer than American TV hostess Oprah Winfrey and Britain’s JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series.

She overtook Huang Guangyu, the founder of electronics retailer Gome, whose fortune is estimated at US$2.5 billion and who now ranks second.

Zhu Mengyi, chief of Guangzhou-based Hopson Development, a real estate group listed in Hong Kong, was ranked third with personal wealth worth US$2.1 billion.

Women were becoming increasingly visible among China’s rich set, with 35 now in the top-500 list, which Hoogewerf’s said was a “dramatic change.”

Other top women include metal trader Chen Ningning in 20th place with a fortune estimated at US$800 million, while Beijing property developer Chen Lihua with US$750 million was ranked 25th.

Television presenter turned businesswoman, Yang Lan of SunMedia Investments, ranked 56th at US$500 million.

Zhai Meiqing of Kinhom, a furniture retailer, was worth US$415 million, while Zhang Xin, a Beijing property developer, has wealth valued at US$163 million.

Average worth of the 500 richest Chinese was US$276 million, 48 percent more than in 2005.

As a group they control an estimated total of US$138 billion.

To make this year’s list 100 million dollars was necessary; no humble sum compared with the first list of China’s richest people eight years ago, when 50 were ranked with a cut-off of six million dollars.

“The rich in China are getting richer, and fast,” said Hoogewerf.

Trade registers US$15.3 bln surplus Beijing, October 12 (Bloomberg) – China registered US$15.3 billion trade surplus in September from a record US$18.8 billion in August, the Beijing-based customs bureau said. For the first nine months this year, China’s trade surplus reached US$110 billion, exceeding last year’s total of US$102 billion.

China, Russia to build power plants Beijing, October 12 (AP) – China’s State Grid Corp. and the Russia’s Unified Energy System plan to invest US$10 billion in new power plants to supply northeastern China’s growing energy needs.

The plants are to be built along China’s northeastern border with Russia over the next five years and fueled with coal imported from Siberia.

Flight direct from Beijing to Macao

By He Jianwei Hainan Airlines will open a direct flight from Beijing to Macao on October 29.

Hainan Airlines will promote the favorable round-trip tickets in the one month after.

The passengers from Harbin, Changchun, Yinchuan, Hohhot, Lanzhou, and Taiyuan taking the direct flight in Beijing will only pay an additional 400 yuan for the one-way ticket from their cities to Beijing.

Asahi Glass to build 2nd plant

Hot pets An air-conditioned dog house is demonstrated at the 10th International Pets Goods Exhibition in Beijing.

Over 400 manufacturers and dealers of

pets related goods from 20 countries and regions presented their products on the exhibition, including pet food, clothes and houses.

Xinhua Photo

Bank of Beijing wins QDII approval Beijing, October 11 (Reuters) – Bank of Beijing has become the first city commercial bank to win approval from China’s banking regulator to participate in the country’s Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme.

China launched the QDII scheme in July, allowing

selected financial institutions to channel their clients’ money overseas in a move aimed in part at easing upward pressure on the yuan.

To date the Chinese authorities have let more than a dozen institutions invest a total of US$11.1 billion of their clients’

funds abroad.

Bank of Beijing, in which Dutch lender ING has a 19.9 percent stake, said it was now preparing to apply to China’s foreign exchange regulator for a QDII quota. The quotas granted so far range from US$300 million to US$2.5 billion.

IBM moves global procurement office to China Beijing, October 12 (Reuters) – IBM announced on Thursday the relocation of its global procurement headquarters to Shenzhen in southern China, capitalizing on emerging market opportunities.

The move comes after IBM’s Asia-Pacific office completed its move to Shanghai from Tokyo this year.

The company made India a global delivery hub for software needs and client services.

IBM derives about half its rev-

enue from information technology consulting and outsourcing.

The decision to move Chief Procurement Officer John Paterson’s office from New York to China marks the first time the headquarters of an IBM corporate-wide organization has been located outside the US, the company said in a statement.

This move illustrates a shift underway at International Business Machines Corp. from a multinational corporation to a new model – a globally integrated

enterprise, it said.

IBM has been sourcing in Asia for more than 50 years, most of it has been in support of its hardware businesses, but the demand for software and services skills across Asia and worldwide is growing faster.

Asia is home to more than 1,850 IBM procurement and logistics professionals, many of whom work at the China Procurement Center in Shenzhen, China, which has been in operation for more than a decade.

Tokyo, October 12 (Reuters) – Asahi Glass Co. Ltd., Japan’s biggest glass maker, said it planned to invest 6.5 billion yen (US$54.3 million) to build a second automotive glass plant in China’s Guangdong province.

Together with its first Chinese plant in Hebei province, the company’s overall production capacity of automotive glass would be enough to outfit 2.2 million vehicles a year.

Toyota’s China sales up 164 pct Shanghai, October 12 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp.’s China vehicle sales jumped 164 percent in the first nine months from a year earlier to 203,000 units, a company official said.

In September alone, China vehicle sales of the top Japanese automaker surged 188 percent compared with the same month in 2005, the official told Reuters.

Security on show in major trade fair

By Qiu Jiaoning The 2006 China International Exhibition on Public Safety and Security will be held in Beijing between October 30 and November 2. Exhibitors include Siemens, General Electric, Honeywell, Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi, Sanyo, and Samsung, just some of the more than 700 companies who will show off their latest products and technology for security and international anti-terrorism.

October 13 2006

Materazzi has a book about Zidane’s head butt

Harvard graduates celebrate by waving gavels.

CFP Photo

CFP Photo

Thank God! I won!

The Associated Press Marco Materazzi has put together a book in which he takes a tongue-in-cheek look at what he might have said to prompt Zinedine Zidane to head butt him in the World Cup final.

Zidane, who was playing in the final game of his career, rammed his head into the Italy defender’s chest during extra time

of the World Cup final after Materazzi said something to him.

The France captain was redcarded and Italy went on to win the title on penalty kicks.

The incident sparked weeks of speculation about what Materazzi might have told Zidane to provoke such a reaction, and the Italian eventually acknowledged that he had insulted Zidane’s sister.

In a book titled What I actually told Zidane, Materazzi lists 249 possible phrases he could have uttered, including his real words, the ANSA news agency reported Sunday.

The sentences range from “Zidane, what are you doing?

You haven’t lost yet and already you’ve ripped your hair out,” to “Since Foucault died, French phi-

losophy has sucked.”

The book, which costs Eur10 (US$13), is being published by Mondadori and was shown at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Money earned from the book’s sale will be donated to Unicef, ANSA reported.

Phone calls to Mondadori’s offices in Rome and Milan were unanswered Sunday.

7

Debate

Web sites offer students new way to cheat

By Scott Malone (Reuters) Even the most efficient student would have agonized over the assignment – a 30-page term paper on the social value of literary criticism.

But Richard finished it in one evening, cutting and pasting paragraphs off the Internet for an online company that sells papers to desperate US college students.

The Internet has given students access to reams of information, made it cheaper to keep in touch with faraway friends and family and even allowed students to attend universities remotely.

But it has also given a new lease on life to an old plague of academia – the term-paper mill.

Some 37 percent of undergraduates admit to copying portions of their research papers from the Internet, up from 10 percent in 1999, according to a 2006 poll of 60,000 US college students by Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University, in Newark, New Jersey.

“It’s so prevalent, it’s so easy, so anonymous,” said McCabe.

That’s really nice that he’s donating the money to Unicef, that’s something only Italians would do. I can’t wait to get a copy of the book!

— Juventina I think this whole situation was blown way out of proportion, so it’s great that he’s trying to find humor in this. If the money is going to charity, even better.

Let’s not forget, people, for who-

ever watches sports, players get provoked all the time, but the only reason Materazzi was in the spotlight, was because Zidane lost control of his emotions. So is it only wrong when they broadcast it, or is it always wrong, because you just don’t see the so many other players that are doing it as well?

— topogigio 249 possible phrases? From the examples there, it sounds like Materazzi is about as sarcastic

as Touzours. Wonder why he still despises Materazzi when they’re so similar!

— WaterfallOfDestiny I think it is rather amusing; humor really is the best solution to problems like this in which people just get upset over.

— locomonohijo The Internet sure had fun with the incident, even though it wasn’t really funny for either player involved I would imagine.

— Answerer17

Healing 2. An Elephant Crackup?

3. Gone for Decades, Jaguars Steal Back to the Southwest 4. Eye-Catching Images of Nature, Made With a Common Machine 5. Music Overpowers Streisand’s Many Missteps Toronto Star (Canada) 1. Wilson re-elected union head 2. That old Liberal swagger is back

3. Toxic juice still in T.O. stores 4. New finch discovered in Andes 5. Ca$2m cash donated to university Daily Telegraph (UK) 1. N Korea’s bomb ‘would kill 200,000’ 2. Is this the killer of Russian journalist?

3. Pyongyang unites world in condemnation 4. Draw exposes England’s

Seriously my friend, he has as insatiable need to remain visible by keeping this issue in the media for whatever reason.

I realize that you posted it tongue in cheek, but really I find it in bad taste to keep the incident going like this.

Makes me think he has been again misleading in saying he has regrets at all. Kind of says something about his character also.

— Andygurl

Weekly topics Newsweek (US) 1. NKorea: Why Blast Size Doesn’t Always Matter 2. Americans Wary of 300 Million Population 3. War Stories: Strains on a Military Marriage 4. Dickey: ‘Axis’ Now a Bigger Threat 5. N. Korea: Will Test Bring Down Kim? New York Times (US) 1. Friends for Life: An Emerging Biology of Emotional

lack of ideas 5. Honor in defeat for Schumacher Sydney Morning Herald (Aus) 1. People who need people to *@*&! off 2. Runaway bride sues for cash 3. Car vandal’s Bondi blitz 4. Dog ‘urged’ to attack young girl 5. Too sexy? Not us – we’re just having fun

BEIJING TODAY

Comments:

If a student is unable to produce essays in their own right they are not good enough for university. These bluff merchants will have to bluff their way through their whole lives knowing that they are phonies. What they don’t realize is that a phony can be spotted a mile off.

— Dot Because I was once was late with work at university, I copied chunks from a couple of textbooks and added my own gloss. My lecturers saw through this, put a line through the lot and added a terse comment, “plagiarized Elton”. Zero marks. I never did it again.

— Rob How can employers trust that the universities are producing competent graduates if plagiarism is excused? I do not buy that students are unable to distinguish between their own and others work. It is more likely that they think they can get away with it because there are no penalties or detection mechanisms.

I do not want to be operated on, driving over a bridge, counseled by, represented or pay money to a graduate who has cheated their way through university.

It’s about time it was recognized for what it is which is cheating, plain and simple.

— Sally Morcombe I don’t see the problem. Essays have always been written by copying chunks from various books. Why not websites?

— Steve

Editors: Hou Mingxin Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Comments:

October 13 2006

Expat news

8

Stand Up Against Poverty

By Chu Meng The city of Beijing has joined in Stand Up Against Poverty, an action in which millions of people around the world will be showing their support to eradicate poverty and inequality through physically standing up together from 6pm on the 16 to 17 of October. Now you can be a member of the action and join the worldwide effort to end poverty.

Global Call to Action Against Poverty, or GCAP, a volunteer based organization under the UN Refugee Agency, sponsors the action. Yuan Xin, a secretary of GCAP China Office said, “It means uniting millions of people around the world to show world leaders and decision makers that they are

People from all over the world stand up all together to make poverty Photo provided by GCAP history.

committed to ending poverty and inequality.”

As a celebration of the World Poverty Day on October 17, the event organizers will also be attempting to set the first-ever Guinness World Record for simultaneously standing up physically against poverty. Every participant will wear a white wrist band to show their resolution.

Members of local, national trade unions, NGOs, women’s organizations, youth groups, about 100 universities around the country, including about 700 university students, 1,000 students of elementary schools, and 300 disabled people have decided to take part in the events separately during the 24 hours.

International galleries earn over 200 million

By Qiu Jiaoning The trading volume of art works has exceeded 200 million yuan during Art Beijing 2006, a large-scale contemporary art exposition held in the National Agricultural Exhibition Center from October 6 to 10, according to statistics by the exposition’s Executive Committee.

A total of 110 famous galleries from 12 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and America flocked to Art Beijing to display and auction their art works.

Yvonne Ye from Art Beijing’s Publicity Department said that galleries from South Korea were very popular in the exposition, and some sold all their works dis-

played. Arario Gallery from South Korea got a US$300,000 deal on the first day of the exposition.

Michael Petronko Gallery from the US sold a piece of Andy Warhol’s work for US$450,000. Two Spanish galleries sold 10 pieces of Milo’s engraving for US$75,000 and Gem Gallery from France sold

16 major works.

Original works by numerous well-known Chinese and foreign contemporary artists, such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Arman, Zhu Dequn, Zhao Wuji, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, Zeng Fanzhi and Yang Shaobin were exhibited at the event.

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Hou Mingxin Han Manman Designer:Zhao Yan

Vienna boys take on Mozart and the Beatles

By Chen Shasha Raoul Gehringer knows a thing or two about Vienna Choir Boys. “I was one - when I was young!” he says. His association continues - he’s here in Beijing to conduct them at the Century Theater this Friday.

Born in Vienna in 1971, Raoul Gehringer had his first piano lessons at the age of six. After his time with the Vienna Boys’ Choir, he went on to study piano and clarinet at the Vienna Conserva-

tory. In 2000, he was appointed choirmaster of one of the Vienna Boys’ Choir touring choirs. “It’s difficult to conduct children’s choir sometimes, to let them act as one person. But I don’t just ask them to do what I say. I try to give them more performance opportunities and let them enjoy singing,” Gehringer says.

Gehringer adds that all the 100 boys in Vienna Boys’ Choir touring choirs, aged from 10 to 14 were selected from Vienna

Choir Boys School. After complete musical and general education, the most talented boys were selected to join the touring choir. However, during more than half a millennium’s development of the choir, no girls have been included in the touring choir. “Girls have opportunity to study in Vienna Choir Boys School, but when they reach the age of 10, they have to leave,” Gehringer said. “We do so to keep the pure voice of

the choir. Girl’s voices are too sweet.” After 14, boys also leave the group. There are only 25 boys each year.

Now, there are four groups In Friday’s performance, a half hour’s children’s opera by Mozart will be performed. Fourteen Mozart pieces will be performed.

Apart from the opera, the choir’s repertoire from medieval to contemporary and experimental music will also be on show in the two hour performance.

Napoleon’s tailor comes to Beijing

By Huang Daohen Henry Poole, a British tailoring company of international fame, officially opened its first Savile Row style tailor in Beijing recently.

Henry Poole launched the store with the collaboration of Hangzhou Hanloon Tailor Corporation.

The store provides classic, elegant, well cut bespoke garments, and the work is carried out in the traditional way. In the store located in Oriental Plaza, there are thousands of types of top cloth. All the materials, either produced in Italy or Britain, are transported directly from their place of origin, including Huddersfield, tweeds from the lowlands of Scotland, Harris and Shetland Isles.

Each customized suit–from cloth to style of button–can be freely chosen and matched according to the customer’s lifestyle and taste. The cost of a customized suit may vary from 5,000 to 20,000 yuan. At the Savile Row showroom there are also Henry Poole shirts, ties, socks and accessories.

Henry Poole has a history of over 200 years. They have made clothes for Napoleon, Churchill, de Gaulle and other famous politicians, as well as the British royal family.

For details, call the Henry Poole at 8518 4628

The Henry Poole Corner in Beijing Photo provided by The Henry Poole

October 13 2006

ment, is the first of its kind in China.

Targeting Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the office will cooperate with Chinese airlines and travel agents to promote the Los Angeles International Airport and develop tour packages to Los Angeles.

It is the first leg of the Villaraigosa’s 16-day tour in Asia, taking in China, Japan and South Korea.

“Los Angeles is putting down a permanent welcome mat for the tens of millions of Chinese tourists who will visit our great city in the coming years. More tourism means more jobs and a healthier economy,” said Villaraigosa in a statement.

Of the US$12.9 billion in direct visitor spending in Los Angeles in 2005, 78 million dollars were gener-

ated by visitors from China, according to Xinhua. Villaraigosa hopes to capture a significant share of the expected 50 million new Chinese travelers who will travel to the United States by 2010. The World Tourism Organization estimates that China will supply 100 million annual travelers to the United States by 2020.

Kissinger honored by Beijing University

By Gan Tian Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was granted an honorary doctorate by Beijing University on Tuesday afternoon.

In a speech following the award ceremony, Dr Kissinger told his audience of students and staff, “I’ve been to China more than 40 times. Great changes have happened here over the 35 years since my first visit.”

CFP photo

Amsterdam duo to give piano concert in Beijing

By Chu Meng After a highly successful tour in October 2005, the Amsterdam piano duo Wyneke Jordans and Leo van Doeselaar has been reinvited by the Royal Netherlands Embassy of China, this time to Shanghai and Beijing.

On October 13 the duo will perform a Mozart program for two pianos at the famous Shanghai Concert Hall. The next day a concert will be given at the concert hall of the Beijing Central Conservatory, with compositions by Bach, Saint-

Saens, Ravel, Beethoven, Dvorak, Mozart and the Dutch composer George Hendrik Witte. On October 15th the Duo will give a master class at the same conservatory.

Jordans and Doeselaar belong to the top of European

pianists of the moment. They are invited by the Concertgebouw, a prestigious music festival in Amsterdam, at least once a season and frequently perform with leading Dutch orchestras and ensembles throughout Europe and the USA.

Uzcategui

Photo provided by Venezuela Embassy

Comptroller general of Venezuela visits China

By Huang Daohen At the invitation of the Ministry of Supervision of China, Clodosbaldo Russi Uzcategui, comptroller general of Venezuela, paid a visit to China between October 9 and 12.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Sino-Venezuelan strategic partnership development.

Uzcategui expressed his thanks for the invitation and kind reception of the Ministry of Supervision during a news conference held at the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He said that the successful visit to China was a perfect beginning to strengthen bilateral exchange and cooperation, to learn from each other and improve each other’s practices. The Supreme Audit Institutions of Venezuela and China are both very young, but to be young does not mean to be immature.

Venezuela founded the political system of ‘five-fold separation of power’ in 1999, adding citizenship and voting rights to the previous legislative, judicial and executive power.

Editors: Hou Mingxin Han Manman Designer: Zhao Yan

By Qiu Jiaoning The city of Los Angeles has set up a tourism office in Beijing to market the city as an attractive business and leisure destination for Chinese people, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced at the opening ceremony on Monday.

The new tourism office, approved by the Chinese govern-

BEIJING TODAY

Los Angeles sets up city tourism office in Beijing

Commerce & consulates

9

October 13 2006

Community

10

Music and dance in the community

SambAsia participants performing in the Midi Festival this year.

By Annie Wei SambAsia Beijing will start its fall classes in a few weeks now that dance trainer Jimmy Biala is to be back in town.

The organization was started last year, modeled on the community ensembles of Rio de Jeneiro.

Leon Lee, an American Chinese man who organizes SambAsia Beijing used to work with SambAsia in San Francisco, where the

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Hou Mingxin Han Manman Designer: Yang Gen

Jane Goodall China work continues

By Han Manman Dr Jane Goodall, an English scientist who has been called ‘an Einstein in the field of Zoological Behavior’, will come to Beijing from next Monday to Wednesday to build Chinese awareness about environment protection and inspire individuals and groups to take action.

One of the important aims of Goodall’s Beijing trip is to open a new Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) and to promote her China-based non-profit programs and activities including Roots and Shoots, an environment and humanitarian program that she founded for young people to promote environmental protection and conservation.

Emma Gao from JGI China said Goodall will be meeting with a diverse mix of communities in Beijing. Tailoring her message for different age and professional groups, she will emphasize the need for more environmental initiatives in China. During the stay, she will give a free public lecture at a Beijing University venue.

Goodall is a world-renowned scientist, best known for her pioneering research in chimpanzee behavior initiated in 1960 in Tanzania. The JGI was founded to support her ongoing wildlife research and to spread awareness about environmental conservation worldwide.

For more information about Goodball’s Beijing trip, visit www.jpichina.org

group is based.

Lee said that these samba groups serve as the social hub of the neighborhood, representing strong neighborhood pride and support in the face of economic and socio-political hardship. Now SambAsia has set up sister schools in Taiwan and Beijing.

“The music itself encourages participation,” said Lee. SambA-

Photo by Wang Tao sia has put on three formal performances at the opening of the 798 Dashanzi Festival, the Midi Festival and the Shanghai Biennial. Anyone interested is allowed to take part. Participants range from nine to 50-year-olds.

“Every day, we have around 50 to 60 people coming along to practice,” said Lee. Jimmy Biala, percussionist, bandleader and teacher from

Northern California is the only one who can teach for the organization in Beijing right now. Biala will be in Beijing for two weeks.

SambAsia is open to everyone, whatever their musical ability. Practice sessions are scheduled in after-work hours.

And no matter which day people want to join in, their first lesson is free. Class fees are on a slid-

ing scale depending on each student’s ability to pay.

“We are a non-profit organization,” said Lee. “All class fees will go towards compensating for the cost of drums, uniforms and venue rental so we just ask people to give what they can.”

Anyone interested in taking part in SambAsia should go to the South Gate in 798 for more information.

Made in Italy, mine in China

By Gareth George The Capital Club, Beijing, last weekend. Men of action line the walls – pictures of Ted Heath, Henry Kissinger, George Bush Sr, ties flicked back like motion lines. But they aren’t here to day. Today is about pleasure, not business. Or is it?

The Italians are running things today. With them, it’s never easy to tell the two apart.

Today, half a dozen Chinese men in chinos and polo shirts recline on the well-stuffed sofas, regarding model Ellen Liu with been-there-done-that indifference. Their Rolexes and gold chains send shards of light. Their wives sit, hands in their laps, as they strain for a better look, their floral blouses crease round the shoulders.

They don’t notice.

Ellen is displaying a Katherina Made bag. Light blue, a little gold. Nothing too ostentatious. Marco De Bonis, an Italian with an eye for business, lets us know why it’s so spe-

cial, “That’s crocodile skin from a region in the Nile, between Ethiopia and Egypt. The crocodiles there have the most fabulous skin. The gold? That’s real gold–140 grams. Woven like cloth with a technique that is 1,000 years old.” The price?

150,000 rmb.

Italian purveyors of luxury, Katherina Made make just 40 items per collection. Their wallets, purses, shawls and basques (really) are made with the best croc or python skin then laced with the gold thread that is their signature. Ellen brings round another piece. A shopping bag made of “Belly skin– for the symmetry of the lines.”

A snip at 180,000 rmb.

But who’s going to buy this stuff? “Actually, as my wife seems to like it, I would certainly consider buying something,” says the President of the WG Entrepreneur’s Club.

“Whether the company will be a success in China, I can’t say –depends how it’s marketed.

But the rich in China like this sort of thing now - and ‘made in Italy’ says ‘quality’.”

He’s right about that. China’s middle classes are booming, and they’ve fallen in love with all things Italian. As we reported last week, FerrariMaserati has just opened its biggest showroom in Asia in Golden Port Park and according to Mirko Pietro Bordiga, Ferrari Maserati’s China manager, they sold 82 Ferraris and 70 Maseratis in China last year an increase of 95 percent on the previous year. Fashion behemoth Armani plans a major expansion. They are planning to open up to 50 new retail outlets, Italian News Agency ANSA claims. Already, of the top six international fashion brands with a presence in China, four are Italian, including number one and two (Boss, with 67 stores, Ermenegildo Zenga, with 60. Ferragamo is in fifth place and Armani is currently sixth with 35).

Marco De Bonis, Katherina Made’s China representative, thinks the answer is simple.

“China is everyone’s biggest new market. Everyone wants to get a presence, so we are approaching people to see how the products fare.” But Mrs Abdirizzak Renzoni, an attache for the Italian Embassy, thinks there’s more to it. “Italians are simply more fashionable than others. We have a long heritage of innovation and creativity. The weaving process [for the gold] is part of that. We are the country of Michaelangelo and Da Vinci. The Chinese appreciate that.”

Alicia Yu is a Beijing fashion designer. She is learning Italian and is about to go and study fashion design further in Italy. “Chinese see Italy as the home of design. We are the world’s biggest clothing and textile exporter, but the rich here don’t see Chinese textiles as good quality. We look to others in that sense, and Italy has a long history of pushing the boundaries of arts and taste.”

Learn the Crossing Dance

By Chu Meng Bertha Bermudez, a star dancer from Dutch EmioCreco/PC Dancing Company was invited to give a workshop named Double Skin/Double Mind in Beijing’s Crossing Dance Festival on October 14

and 15 at Past-SARS Mini Theater in Chaoyang.

In the workshop program Double Skin/Double Mind, Bertha Bermudez will challenge the participants to apply physical choices to various impulses

such as words, qualities and sounds.

The main focus is on how movement can be redefined through a synergetic environment where the body must encounter its helplessness and hopelessness in order to grow stronger.

October 13 2006

Disabilities: the facts There are 60 million people who suffer from disabilities in China.

Among them, 20.57 million have hearing disabilities, 11.82 million have mental disabilities, 8.77 million have physical disabilities, 8.77 million have visual disabilities, 2.25 million suffer some form of mental illness and 7.82 million have multiple disabilities. More than 2.5 percent of children suffer from some form of disability.

Handicapped children living in welfare institutions belong to the most disadvantaged group as they not only have lost their parents and family, but also are tortured by ailments and deformity.

According to the Civil Affairs Council of China in 2003, there were 40,000 social welfare organizations, including 1,539 children’s welfare organizations and nine SOS villages. They can be found in cities and small towns across China. 50,000 orphans have already been adopted by these organizations.

Their work focuses on: 1) Managing the day-to-day care of child welfare centers where orphans are being raised 2) Fundraising 3) Establishing foster homes 4) Facilitating adoptions What we can do Money from sales of the artwork at the exhibition will go to the children themselves.

Below we list NGOs that focus on helping disabled children. Contact them to donate or volunteer.

New Day Foster Home The New Day Foster Home is devoted to alleviating the pain and the rejection in these children’s lives. These children, many of them babies, often have deformities and handicaps, which contributed to their being abandoned.

Through adoption, foster care, and child sponsorships the love of thousands of people around the world has helped these children.

Website: www.newdaycreations.com Tel: 8028 2124 Email: foster@newdaycreations.com Beijing Stars and Rain Autism Education institute It was founded in 1993 by a parent and is China’s first nongovernmental educational orga-

More people are realizing that help and encouragment are more important to disabled students than anything else.

CFP Photo nization to serve children with autism with the ages of 3 to12.

The founder Ms.Tian Huiping is the mother of a boy with autism.

Website: www.guduzh.org.cn Tel: 8537 3236 Email: sunzk@autismchina.org Beijing Huiling Community Service for People with Disabilities Beijing Hui Ling Community offers services for people with

mental disabilities in the community and helps to improve their quality of life.

Website: www.huiling.org.cn Tel: 8402 9532 Email:info@huiling-bj.org Tianjin Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village The Philip Hayden Foundation is a non-profit charitable organization, established for the purpose of helping China’s orphaned and special needs children.

Website: www.philiphayden.org Tel: 022-2219 0708 Email: tim.baker@chinaorphans.org Beijing Hong Dan Dan Educational & Cultural Exchange Center Provides service for mentally disabled youths over 16 years old.

Website: www.hongdandan.org Tel: 5166 3030 Email: hongdandan323@yahoo.com.cn Beijing Feng Tai District Li Zhi Rehabilitation Center Website:www.bjlizhi.org Tel: 5185 6801 Email:lizhi0831@163.com Beijing Hui Tian Yu Information Consultation Centre Website:www.hty.org.cn Tel:6617 6328 Email: wurunling@yahoo.com.cn Guang Xi Nan Ning Angel House Rehabilitation and Education Activity Center It is the first non-profit organization in Guangxi Province specializing in rehabilitation of children with mild or moderate cerebral palsy.

Website: www.cpangel.org.cn Tel: 0771-492 3280 Email: angelhouse123@126.com Guangzhou Yang Ai Special Children Parent Club Provides support and information for the social, emotional and cognitive needs of disabled children and their families. It does this through offering a range of therapies, training activities, or individual consultations to parents.

Website: www.parentclub.ngo.cn Tel: 020-8628 2606 Email: yang-ai@parentclub.ngo.cn

Editors: Hou Mingxin Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

By Han Manman A unique new exhibition highlighting works of art by disabled and orphaned children opened in Beijing this week.

The ‘Colors of Paradise’ exhibition, which is being organized by the Apple Foundation and 11 NGOs, opened at the Today Art Museum on Tuesday and will run until October 25.

Nearly 350 works of art, including paintings and paper cuttings by orphaned and disabled children are on show. Zhu Jie, one of the exhibition organizers, said the event aimed to raise people’s awareness about this oft forgotten group.

“What is unique about this exhibition is that beside each piece of art, we give the child’s name and the illness from which they are suffering,” he said. “We also explain how the different NGOs look after the children in their care. Anyone interested in finding out more about the problems faced by disabled and orphaned children growing up in China should come along.”

“The exhibition gives a voice to children who otherwise have no voice,” said Zhou Xingkang, the executive secretary general of the Apple Foundation.

Where: Today Art Museum (Jin Ri Mei Shu Guan) No.9, Wen Hui Yuan Bei Lu, Haidian, Beijing (ticket free)

BEIJING TODAY

Plight of disabled kids bought to light

News u can use

11

October 13 2006

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Qiu Jiaoning Designer: Zhao Yan E-mail:yushanshan724@ynet.com

Center stage

12

Through the lo

By Gareth George

Money makes the world go around. When we hear the word ‘transparency’, most of us think of the clarity of glass, or a photographic slide. Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today’s Investor defines it as ‘the full, accurate and timely disclosure of information’. Modern methods of heating and cooling buildings allow us more natural light than ever before at work and at home. As the shadows of the past recede, how does Beijing stand up to the scrutiny of the cold hard light of day?

Abstract

The lion reflects

The modern skyscraper is like a gravestone for the hutong

The artist on her wor

“You have a sense you are part of a world progressing.”

“I paint in acrylic on Plexiglas, though I also use some pigments – I used to live in Morocco and I loved the dyes there, and I love the colors. I use a lot of metallics to create works that change with the light. The reflection is part of the effect. Like the name of my show, my art is about transparency and the urban landscape.

“In the architecture of the 21st century, transparency is everywhere. I see this as a metaphor for the barriers between people being lifted. In today’s Beijing, there are windows everywhere. Beijingers can see in everywhere. In the past, this simply wasn’t the case, the city’s barriers are dissolving. The impact of this on society may not be felt yet, but it surely will.

“I’ve enjoyed painting in Guomao, painting buildings while they are still being worked on. As an artist, you have a sense that you are part of a world that is progressing and moving forward. The future isn’t set, but it’s exciting. With Plexi, the light goes in and

kind o differe same the lan living “In like th groun graves “Th buildi vacy, b light. will he or eve the gr wearin the un “A

October 13 2006

ooking glass Photo by Olivier Sasportas

About the artist

Fortunee Noel is a French artist based in Beijing. She has held exhibitions of her work everywhere from Jerusalem, Monaco, Valencia, Gaza, Tel-Aviv and now Beijing. In 2006 she won the Prize of Honor at the Third Festival of Art, Monaco. In 2003 she was awarded a scholarship, the Miriam and Aaron Gutwirth Science -based Industrial Center award by the Technion (the Israel Institute of Technology.) In 1998 she won first prize at the Young Israeli Artists’ Competition, awarded by the Israeli Ministry of Integration.

is left out. This new transparency is a kind of revolution. People are getting used to being able to see beyond the facade. The impact could be huge. As the light passes through, movement changes perspective.

The viewer has access to what was previously hidden in shadow. The world becomes clearer. The boundaries disappear.

“Capitalism is about confidence. If you are going to buy from someone, and you have a choice, you have to trust them. That’s why transparency is so important in the west. We list the ingredients on food so we know what is in what we cook. Dark shops deter customers.

But a balance needs to be found. Too much transparency leaves you with nothing – it kills the space.

“This is an exhibition for a new generation. The Plexi screens reflect the way we are today – we spend our whole lives staring at screens, whether they be computers, TVs or mobile phones. So the exhibition reflects us reflecting on the future.”

About the exhibition

Transparency will run between October 20 and December 20 at the Imagine Gallery, open 5pm-8pm. Sponsored by the Embassy of France, Cafe de la Poste, the Hutong School and FDL Achitechture.

Imagine Gallery Open daily, 10am-6pm. 300m across the street from TongDa restaurant, Feijiacun Donglu, Laiguangying Donglu, Chaoyang.

13910917965 / 64385747 www.imagine-gallery.com

BEIJING TODAY

Everything is reflected and illuminated

Editors: Yu Shanshan Qiu Jiaoning Designer: Zhao Yan

The light changes the way you see the city

rk

of plays around with the paint. It looks very ent depending on where you stand, and it’s the with the city. As the light and you yourself move, ndscape actually changes all the time. It’s like a thing. n this painting of the hutong, the roves are gold he light reflecting in the evening. In the backnd is a skyscraper, dark and menacing. It’s like a stone for the hutongs that are being torn down. his lion is typical of those you see guarding ings in Beijing. He is an ancient symbol of pribut here, like my other pieces, he reflects the Will he survive Beijing’s new transparency? Or e reflect the battle between the old and new – en provide a bridge between the two? Painting ray stone in reflecting metallics, he looks like he’s ng armor. It’s like he’s protecting himself from ncertainty of the future.

Architecture is all about what is left in and what

Center stage

13

October 13 2006

Books

14

As the English reading public of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth awaited the unveiling of the new Booker prize winner, the Guardian asked 150 of literature’s leading lights to debate the best ‘potential Booker’ since 1980.

And the winner is...

Disgrace

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Chen Shasha Designer: Zhao Yan

By JM Coetzee

Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Vintage (6 April 2000) Language: English Synopsis: Disgrace centers on 52-year-old English professor David Lurie, preoccupied with Romanitc poetry and romancing his students.

Called to account by the University for a passionate but brief affair with a student, David refuses to apologise, drawing on poetry before political correctness in his claim that his “case rests on the rights of desire.” Seeking refuge with his daughter Lucie on her isolated small holding, David finds that the violent dilemmas of the new South Africa are inescapable when the tentative emotional truce between father and daughter is ripped apart by a traumatic event. Pitching the moral code of political correctness against the values of Romantic poetry in its evocation of personal relationships, this novel explores David’s refusal to be accountable and his daughter’s determination to make her entire life a process of accountability. Their personal dilemmas cast increasingly foreshortened shadows against the rising concerns of the emancipated community, and become a metaphor for the historical unaccountability of one culture to another.

The real brilliance of this stylish book lies in its ability to capture and render accountable universality of the condition of white consciousness.

Disgrace is a confrontation with history. Coetzee’s vision is unforgiving–but not bleak.

Coetzee’s written loads of books. What’s so special about this one?

In this novel, perhaps his masterpiece, JM Coetzee emerges as the most old-fashioned kind of literary genius: a person whose strong imagination is guided by firm and deeply held beliefs.

Coetzee’s powerful style, admired so much for its own sake, seems to grow from these beliefs.

Coetzee’s titles are packed with meaning. The word ‘disgrace’ may hint at the state of grace that can be achieved only by compassion for other living beings. The fault that sets the tragedy in motion is David Lurie’s inability to sympathize with his student. He can see but does not really take in the clear signs that she does not desire him as he desires her.

This novel brings to mind the theology of kenosis, the self-emptying necessary for spiritual growth. After being brutally handled by the robbers, Lurie knows his injuries are not severe, yet he “feels his interest in the world draining from him drop by drop.” Later, he imagines his operatic heroine intoning, “What does this immense solitude mean? And what am I myself?”

– Christian Century Bloody hell! That’s going to give me nightmares!

Not for the ethically faint of heart, the fiction of J M Coetzee has repeatedly strewn nettles in the bed of the comfortable social conscience.

– The Review of Contemporary Fiction So he’s going to kick me in my social conscience and frighten me. Next you’ll be saying it’s all for my own good.

JM Coetzee tells us something we all suspect and fear – that political change can do almost nothing to eliminate human misery. What it can do, he suggests, is reorder it a little and halfaccidentally introduce a few new varieties.

Disgrace is Coetzee’s first book to deal explicitly with post-apartheid South Africa, and the picture it paints is a cheerless one that will comfort no one, no matter what race, nationality or viewpoint.

– Salon books Coetzee’s a middle aged South African academic. I’m...not. Will the character still reflect me?

As a middle-aged, divorced scholar of Romantic poetry, David would have undoubtedly been a pathetic figure under the old regime – one imagines an ineffectual white liberal teaching Wordsworth to bored Afrikaners while largely ignoring the atrocities perpetrated in his name.

But in the Mandela era, David has become a victim of ‘the great rationalization’: His university has been remade into a technical college, and he teaches courses in ‘communication skills’ that he finds nonsensical. He is such a nonentity that the prostitute he patronizes weekly – and for whom he has begun buying gifts – stops receiving him. He imagines her and her colleagues shuddering over him “as one shudders at a cockroach in a washbasin in the middle of the night” and wonders if he can ask his doctor to castrate him as one neuters a domestic animal.

– Salon books

Local shelf

Chinese Stories

By Jiao Bo Translated by Zhou Xiaozheng China Intercontinental Press, 160yuan, 238 pages.

This album contains plenty of photos telling true-life stories about ordinary Chinese citizens.

Some excellent photos, such as Hope in the Big Eyes, A Guardian of Red-crowned Cranes, and A Woman Ranger of Dalian. The album is in both Chinese and English editions.

Available: Culture-Subject Plaza (Disanji Bookstore) Where: 66 Beisihuan Xi Lu in Zhongguancun, Haidian Tel: 51282300 ext.

6510£¬82620177

The Kite Runner

By Khaled Hosseini Riverhead, 112yuan, 384pages A haunting and beautiful novel, at its heart is the biggest and most unresolved of conflicts.

Amir and Hassan are best of friends, and spend their days playing in the grounds of Amir’s beautiful home in Kabul. But the boys are also slave and master, a relationship that becomes increasingly complex and difficult to sustain as the boys grow and the affairs of their native Afghanistan begin to effect on their lives in ever more pressing and dangerous ways. A terrible event tests the strength of the friendship between Amir and Hassan...

Available: Beijing Bookworm Where: Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang Tel: 6586 9507 And that’s it for him?

If David actually reclaims some dignity by the end of Disgrace, it is only because he gives up everything – his daughter, his ideas about justice and language, his dream of the opera on Byron and even the dying animals he has learned to love without reservation, without thought for himself.

– Salon books OK, I’m resigned to this brand of misery. At least tell me it reads nice.

‘It may be that 200 pages have never worked so hard. He’s a novelist of stunning precision and efficiency. Disgrace loses none of its fidelity to the social and political complexities of South Africa, even while it explores the troubling tensions between generations, sexes, and races. This is a novel of almost frightening perception from a writer of brutally clear prose.’

– Christian Science Monitor Coetzee’s contempories paint this as the best book of the last 25 years. What does it tell us about South Africa?

‘Disgrace offers an apocalyptic vision of contemporary South Africa. (...) What transforms Disgrace from a good, compelling book into a work of brilliance is its allegorical reach.’

– The Lancet So it’s important then, is it?

‘Disgrace is the best novel Coetzee has written. It is chilling... the work of a mature writer who has refined his textual obsessions to produce an exact, effective prose and condensed his thematic concern with authority into a deceptively simple story of family life.’

– London Review of Books Any ‘nays’ from the back?

‘I was not totally convinced by Lurie’s musical abilities, with regard to his proposed opera, but that is my sole complaint.’

– The Independent (By Gareth George)

A Kiss of Shadows

By Laurell K. Hamilton Bantam, 75yuan, 480 pages A Kiss of Shadows introduces Merry Gentry, aka Meredith NicEssus, a faerie princess of the Unseelie Court, where politics is a blood sport. Merry, who’s part sidhe (elvish), part brownie, and part human, never really fitted in.

These are real liabilities when your family, especially Aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, is out to kill you. Merry haxs been in hiding for three years, living in Los Angeles and working for the Grey Detective Agency, which specializes in “supernatural problems, magical solutions.” A new case sets her against a man who uses forbidden magic to seduce fey women and drain their power. A plan to trap him goes awry and Merry’s cover is blown. Now Andais knows where she is. But things have changed in Andais’s court, and Merry is changing too.

Available: Beijing Foreign Language Bookstore Where: 235, Wangfujing Dajie Tel: 6512 6911 (By Han Manman)

October 13 2006 wrong. On the cooked sausage that consists of a combination of beef and pork or all beef, which is cured, smoked, and cooked, seasonings may include coriander, garlic, ground mustard, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and white pepper. They are usually served hot. Sizes range from big dinner frankfurters to tiny cocktail size.

Hot dogs are among America’s favorite foods, primarily regarded as a fun, summertime food, and mostly are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day. With the days getting shorter and cooler, a hot dog on street may be a good treat.

See what we have in Beijing.

Hotter dogs for cooler days Ingredients: * 1/2 cup chopped onion * 1/2 cup ketchup * 1/4 cup molasses * 2 tablespoons brown sugar * 1 tablespoon mustard * 1 large (28 oz) and 1 small (about 16 oz) pork and beans in tomato sauce (about 40 ounces or 5 to 6 cups total) * 6 to 8 hot dogs Preparation: Combine the onion, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, and mustard. Add the beans and mix well.

Place in a two-quart casserole and bake at 300§ for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Lay hot dogs on beans and bake for another 30 minutes.

Serve with potato salad or coleslaw and crusty bread or biscuits. Hot dogs with beans recipe serves six to eight people.

Saucy hot dogs

Ingredients: * 1 pound hot dogs * 2 tablespoons melted butter * 1 can (10 1/2 ounces) tomato soup * 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar * 3 tablespoons water * 3 tablespoons vinegar * 1 tablespoon lemon juice * 1 small onion, thinly sliced * 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper * Hot dog buns Preparation: Score hot dogs on the diagonal at one-inch intervals. In a large skillet, brown the hot dogs lightly in melted butter. Stir in tomato soup, brown sugar, water, vinegar, lemon juice and onion.

Cover and simmer the hot dogs in the sauce for 10 minutes. Add a green bell pepper and cover and cook for another five minutes.

Serve saucy hot dogs in toasted and split hot dog buns.

Saucy hot dogs serve four to six.

Kala’s Hot Dog and Salad: a story behind a charity restaurant

Annie Ge and her restaurant When we talk seriously about hot dogs, we talk about their recipes, the quality of the meat, curing process, condiments like mustard, chopped onions, radish, sauerkraut and of course the buns. I bit into one of these meaty treats at Kala’s Hot dog and Salad restaurant over the National Day Holiday.

This delightful hotdog stand is not your typical fast food joint.

Behind the restaurant is a story about 22 Chinese women and many years of friendship.

Years ago, Annie Ge, the present owner of Kala’s, met Colette He and other alumni in a high-school reunion in San Francisco. Twenty-two of them stayed in touch and traveled together around the world. The idea of doing something for their home country, China, emerged as they toured this country’s remote areas.

They set up a US based charity to support poor Chinese students to elementary school.

Photos provided by Kala’s Hot dog and Salad Most of the 22 moved back to China this January, after deciding to spend the rest of their lives here. They pooled their savings and founded Kala’s in Wudaokou, northwest Beijing five months later. The aim was to use the profits to fund charities in China.

Annie Ge, who retired as a librarian in the US, moved back to China to oversea the business.

Colette He, the youngest of the group, worked alongside her.

“None of us had run a business before and knew the domestic market, a hotdog restaurant seemed the perfect choice,” said Annie. “Wudaokou is a popular area for expats in Beijing. Our hot dogs and Italian noodles may not be quite as authentic as those served in the States but we have tried our best.”

They researched recipes, imported condiments, contracted suppliers to make sausages especially for them and Kala was born.

The name was inspired by a movie. The same producer Feng Xiaogang who has just released the highly publicized Banquet did Cala is a Dog in late 2002. Annie licensed the name and gave it a slight twist. The tag line for the restaurant is Kala is a hotdog.

The food they serve is as attractive as the story behind. The signature dish, the Kala Hot dog topped with Kala’s special baked beans and minced meat chili sauce costs just 20 yuan. Other exotic hot dogs that are worth a try include the Louisiana Hot Link and the Polish Kielbasa, both 15 yuan each. They also serve sausages, sandwiches, Italian noodles, salad and coffee.

Kala’s Hot dog and Salad Where: A102 Tsinghua Scientific Garden, No.1 Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian. West to the Wudaokou Railway Station Open: 10am-10pm Tel: 8215 0679 Website:www.kalasdog.com

Steak and Eggs Steak and Eggs will easily capture the hearts of North American visitors to Beijing with its numerous offerings that you just can’t find anywhere else, like the all day breakfast, real toast (even wheat), real never-ending American diner-style coffee, not to mention hot apple pie and hot dogs.

Where: 5 Xiushui Nanjie (Bar street behind Friendship Store, near US Embassy), Jianguomenwai, Chaoyang Open: Daily 7am to late night Tel: 6592 8088/8788 Where: 8 Laiguangying Donglu 50m west of the Western Academy of Beijing, south of airport, Chaoyang Open: Daily 7am-9:30pm.

Tel: 8470 1550/1559 Evergreen Café Diverse choices of hot dogs and sandwiches. It also offers an international menu for buffet and a la carte dinner. From Monday to Friday, noon-2 pm and 6pm-9pm are its buffet serving time, costing 138 yuan per person plus a 15 percent service charge, inclusive of juices and coffee or tea.

Where: 3F, Beijing Landmark Plaza, No. 8 North Third Ring Road, Chaoyang Open: 24 hours Tel: 6590 6688 ext. 5255 IKEA exit bistro If your stomach is rumbling after a day of shopping in IKEA, just trot down to the exit bistro located after the checkout. Here you can have a quick bite of hot dogs and a drink at a very low price. It is only a simplified version of hot dogs, no delicate ingredients like chopped onions, sauerkraut or peppers, and no fancy casting. But the best part of it is the self-serving condiments section, where you can add mustard , mayo, thousand island dressing.

Where: IKEA, No.59 Futong Eastern Street , Chaoyang Open: Daily 10am-10pm Tel: 6479 2345 Dairy Queen Dogs You can easily find juicy hot dogs in every branche of DQ ice cream in Beijing. Order them anyway you want, plain, with cheese or for the ultimate taste sensation try their fabulous Chili and Cheese dog.

Editors: Yu Shanshan Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Other places you can find a hot dog:

BEIJING TODAY

Baked beans with hot dogs

15

Food

By Chu Meng The term ‘hot dog’ is credited to sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan. At a 1901 baseball game at the Polo Grounds in New York, vendors began selling hot dachsund sausages in rolls, where Dorgan could hear the vendors yelling, “Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” He sketched a cartoon depicting the scene but wasn’t sure how to spell “dachshund” so he called them simply, “hot dogs.”

Many people think all frankfurters are the same. Nothing could be more

October 13 2006

Discounts & bargains

16

80 yuan voucher Spend over 200 yuan at Shuang An shopping center (38 Beisanhuan Xilu, Haidian) and get an 80 yuan discount voucher until October 15. For details, call 8214 8000.

80 yuan voucher Spend over 200 yuan at Bei Cheng shopping center (8 Andingmenwai Anlilu, Chaoyang) and get a 100 yuan discount voucher until October 16. For details, call 6499 3263

12% off Apply for a membership card at Lan Sha Cafe (Building 5 of SOHO, 39 Dongsanhuan Zhonglu, Chaoyang) and get 12% off discount until October 31. For details, call 5869 6011.

50 yuan voucher Buy Lee’s jeans at the Modern Plaza (40 Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian) and get a 50-yuan discount voucher for the underwear brand Sloggi. For details, call 6257 6688.

15% off Eat at Huo Guo Ben Se hot pot restaurant (26 Xiaoyunlu, Chaoyang) and get 15% off discount until October 15.

For details, call 8448 2269.

22% off Spend over 300 yuan (excluding drinks) at Chao Zhou Beef Ball hot pot restaurant (Hongmiao, Chaoyang) and get 22% off until October 31. For details, call 6592 7546.

40% off Head to Wen Du Aqua Park (Hongfuyuan, Changping) and get 40% off the usual ticket price until October 30. For details, call 8178 8888.

10% off Spend over 100 yuan at Ma La Fang Cheng Shi (15 Xiuyuan, Huizhong Beilu, Chaoyang) and get 10% off the bill and a free dish of grilled shrimp. For details, call 6498 2798.

50% off

15% off

Play golf at Xing Kong Golf Garden (Youwaidajie, Nansanhuan, Fengtai) from 7am to 3pm and get 50% off. A two-hour game will set you back just 30 yuan. For details, call 6752 5938.

BEIJING TODAY

Editor: Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

12% off All books and records at Beijing Books Building (17 Xichanganjie, Xicheng) are 12% off until October 30. For details, call 6607 8477.

Buy one get one free Buy a sandwich at Subway (13 Huaqingjiayuan, Haidian) and get another one free until October 26. For details, call 8286 3562.

Buy Chi Con clothes at the Modern Plaza (40 Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian) and get 15% off until October 15.

For details, call 6257 6688.

(By Terence Lu)

Send us your discounts & offers.

Email us: bjtoday@ynet.com or call: 6590 2626

ADVERTISE IN PLACE YOUR ADVERT NOW AND GET INSTANT RESULTS! Call: Jian Zhong 139 0135 4788 Xiao’ang 133 8106 4865

October 13 2006

By He Jianwei

Trends

Living la vida LOHAS

17

LOHAS, the acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, emphasizes the importance of health, sustainability and optimism.

It describes persons who not only loves themselves and their family’s health, but also the earth that we live on.

Now, the concept of LOHAS has come to China, following in the vein of other acronyms like SOHO (Small Office Home Office) and BOBO (Bourgeois Bohemian).

How to live the LOHAS lifestyle: 1. Take mild and slow exercise everyday like Yoga, Pilates, or shadowboxing.

2. Do not smoke and stay away from passive smoking.

3. Treat others well and deal with the people in a friendly and tolerant manner.

4. Eat organic and healthy food as often as possible.

5. Respect nature, protect the environment and encourage other people to protect the environment as well.

6. Try to share the LOHAS lifestyle with other people.

7. Choose a high quality printer to avoid getting paper jams and wasting paper.

8. Use fluorescent bulbs as they use 66 percent less electricity compared to incandescent bulbs.

9. Turn off electrical appliances at the mains if they are not being used. Leaving appliances on standby wastes electricity.

10. Donate unwanted clothes or objects to welfare organizations.

11. Save as much water as possible.

12. Go to work by bus, bicycle or on foot, or by low-gasolineconsumption car.

Diaries of LOHAS: Felissimo is a company that is promoting the concept of LOHAS in China. Below, we try to shed some light on the LOHAS phenomenon by peeking at the diary entries of three members of staff.

Miwa Aya, a lifestyle advisor at Felissimo On a hot night I open the windows. The neon lights flow over my eyes, making me calm. Then I turn off the lights in my house and light candles. The flames of the candles make me feel peaceful and at ease.

In Japan, we have a movement of ‘one million people’s candle night’ every night during the Summer Solstice. It is an activity to save electricity and a movement to protect the environment.

I have recently become interested in handicrafts. I have made some simple bags and powder boxes with my sewing machine. When my work is finished, I feel satisfied and content.

Wrist pillow and keyboard brush A multi-functional toy.

Price: 65 yuan

One-day suggestions for LOHAS men:

Ling Gear’s cactus juicer Just put fruit on the cactus to make juice!

Price: 128 yuan

Manual soaps Four aromas: camomile, rose, lavender, and mint.

Price: 49 yuan

Munidee tea cosy It can be tied to your belt or your bag.

Price: 68 yuan

6:55 Get up earlier and look out from your balcony You may see some beautiful trees or a cafe near the corner of the street. After getting up, draw your curtains and look out at the new morning.

10:00 Open the windows and take a deep breath Don’t forget to open the windows sometimes and take a deep breath during office hours – even if Beijing’s air is less than clean. A deep breath should give you a boost.

11:00 Give her a ring Love should be the most important part thing in your life. It will give you a sense of belongingness.

12:30 Discard the outside world and enjoy your life If you want have a good body you should firstly take part in a diet revolution. At lunchtime avoid those sloppy, greasy canteen dishes and opt for fresh fruit, vegetables, pulses, fish and lean meat instead.

14:00 Learn how to communicate Try to open your mind to other people and communicate with others. Being able to support each other mentally is the core to good mental health.

16:00 A healthy body Regular exercise will give you a healthy body and mind.

17:00 Go on, spoil yourself Try to give yourself at least one hour everyday to do exactly what you want to do.

19:00 Give someone a hug A warm hug between you and your lover will release the happiness hormone.

20:00 Books: the source of intelligence Bury yourself in books and magazines to increase your knowledge of the world.

21:30 A brave heart Take 10 minutes out of everyday to meditate. It should help you to combat the stresses and strains of modern life.

23:00 Let’s get it on The ultimate expression of love is sex. Sexual happiness will improve both your physical and mental health so get to it!

Attributed to Sun Guangyu, vice editor of Felissimo.com.cn Photos provided by Felissimo.com.cn

Editors: Yu Shanshan Chen Shasha Designer: Zhao Yan

Teruaki Miyamae, the director of Felissimo China People have recently been able to buy ‘environmentally-friendly bags’ instead of plastic bags in some stores. It is a good habit to abandon using the plastic bags and to protect our environment.

I love bamboo baskets and manual soaps. The bamboo baskets are man-made by 80-year-old grandfathers. The design is not fashionable, but it is a basket made with a grandfather’s care and attention. I will cherish that love and will pass the baskets on to my sons and grandsons.

Actually the manual soaps were popular in Europe and North America in 18th century. Our soaps are not the product of machines but are made by a group of Japanese disabled people. I prefer products endowed with the feeling of love.

Living Gear’s bottle opener A parrot that opens bottles.

Price: 109 yuan

BEIJING TODAY

Liu Xuesong, General Manager of Felissimo China I went to my hometown Qingdao in the summer. We found many odds and ends, when my parents were redecorating their house. I found an enamel cup, a colored carton, and a GI kettle.

I remembered the good old days when we drank with the enamel cup. They were sweet memories. Our lives need those details that will remain in our memories.

My son is everything in my world. When he was one or two years old, I told him traditional fairy tales like Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Anderson’s Fairy Tales. But I found the words were too complicated for my son to understand. The colors and lines of the illustrations were also quite rough.

October 13 2006

Shopping

18

By Gan Tian

What happened to privacy? I’m in the bathroom, it’s there. I’m watching TV, it interrupts. Don’t imagine it shows a flicker of respect when I’m using the toilet. That’s right, I’m talking about my mobile phone. These little talking lumps are everywhere – eating away at our humanity and social skills (if you believe the hype).

Better make sure yours is nice, so you’re not tempted to smash its fascia in.

Ring microphone

Gimme a call

Mobile speaker

Trend freak Mobile speaker Your mobile goes off on the bus. So you pull a big black speaker out of your pocket. “Hello,” you smirk, checking to see if everyone is watching you. They are.

Sweet. You feel super cool. Actually, they all think you’re a freak.

Available: First Floor, The Pacific Computer Shopping Center, (Taipingyang Diannaocheng) No. 1, Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian Price: 80-280 yuan each (according to design) Ring microphone You know that Korean pop star Lee Jung Hyun? Well she has one of these. And she’s good at dancing. If you had one, people might think you were good at dancing.

Or not.

Available: 114, First Floor, The Pacific Computer Shopping Center, (Taipingyang Diannaocheng) No. 1, Zhongguancun Dajie, Haidian Price: 480 yuan Loving dogs phone necklace

Animal cushions Hello Kitty mobile dress

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Qiu Jiaoning

Designer: Zhao Yan

The business

Duolei’s shop

Flower necklace

Big kid Animal cushions I’m telling myself when I see these: every frog is a prince, every pig can fly, and every cat has nine lives.

Tomorrow, I’ll remember to take my medication.

Available: Sili, No.44, Chengfulu Road, Wudaokou, Haidian Price: 46-86 yuan each Flower necklace If I was a religious man, this would drive me to blasphemy. And I would mean it. But perhaps a girl would like it. If she was really girly.

Available: A56, Wudaokou Clothing Market, Haidian Price: 10 yuan each Hello Kitty mobile dress If you’ve started wearing ‘Hello Kitty’ stuff, you’ve probably said ‘goodbye kitty’ to most of your friends by now anyway. This should leave you shunned by your phone acquaintances too.

Available: A43, Wudaokou Clothing Market, Haidian Price: 23 yuan in all Duolei’s shop Yu Duolei, a little girl who decorates mobiles, opened this shop in Wudaokou. She said to me, “Dressing your mobile is just like dressing yourself. You have to choose different styles for different people.” So most normal people secretly want to walk round naked?

Available: Duolei’s Shop, No. 56, Chengfulu Road, Haidian Price: 60-100 yuan

Chocolate phone cushion It’s brown, square and hard – but for business types it’s as hard to pass as it looks like it would be to...pass. A good reason not to eat it.

Available: Minte Girl, opposite to Beichen Shopping Center, Yayuncun, Chaoyang District Price: 49 yuan Golf clothes If you’re a white collar worker and you slip your phone into this, your boss might invite you on the next corporate golf day.

Sadly everyone else will think you’re a tool.

Available: Minte Girl, opposite to Beichen Shopping Center, Yayuncun, Chaoyang District Price: 30 yuan White fantasy Simple and elegant. If you really need to do something stupid to your phone, this is probably your best bet. Then again, what’s the point?

Available: Shenliyuan, No 56, Jianguomenwai Dajie, Chaoyang Price: 99 yuan each

Chocolate phone cushion

White fantasy

Golf clothes

Creatures phone accessory

Lovers’ keys

Love birds Creatures phone accessory I like creatures. Probably more than I should. I would buy this. Does that make me a bad person?

Available: B50, Fifth Floor, Huawei Shopping Center, Xidan, Xicheng Price: 30 yuan a pair Lovers’ keys Not keys for doors. Keys to your lover’s heart. Potentially. Look, there’s stuff...standing on it. Love knows when not to ask why.

Available: B47, Fifth Floor, Huawei Shopping Center, Xidan, Xicheng Price: 58 yuan a pair Loving dogs phone necklace and cushions The unholy trinity: necklace, cushions and cutesy animals. Go ahead and buy it. I guarantee you’ll never have to worry about attracting the opposite sex again. Or even speaking to them.

Available: B34, Fifth Floor, Huawei Shopping Center, Xidan, Xicheng Price: 38 yuan a pair for the phone necklace, 68 yuan a pair for the cushions

October 13 2006

Pimples, blackheads or pustules... acne. Having a pimply face is no laughing matter. It can cause insecurity in social interaction, particularly when cupid is on the scene and you’re left rearing your ugly (black and white) heads.

Some outgrow it. Some don’t. And how long are you expected to wait to find out?

Medication can pacify occasional breakouts that will happen from time to time. And it’s more practical than sitting at home with a bag on your head.

Nuke your acne

19

Health

By Huang Daohen

Chinese herbal philosophy 25 grams of peony tree bark (mu dan pi), 25 grams of Chinese Wolfberry root bark (di gu pi), 50 grams of honeysuckle flower (jin yin hua), 20 grams of forsythia (lian qiao), 25 grams of dandelion (pu gong ying), 15 grams of amur cork tree bark (huang bai), 25 grams of belvedere fruit (di fu zi), 15 grams of pine pollen (song hua fen), 25 grams of figwort root (xuan sen), 40 grams of Job’s tear seed (yi yi ren) Western folk may be strangers to the healing power of traditional Chinese medicine, yet many of the herbs like honeysuckle, gardenia and quince grow right there in their gardens. The formula above is by an old Beijing physician especially for acne.

The term ‘Chinese medicine’ refers

to a number of practices, like acupuncture and the prescription of herbal formulas. The theoretical basis has been developed for about 2,500 years. A view of nature – and of health and disease – was set forth in the concepts of two essential forces – Yin (female) and Yang (male).

In the case of acne, Yang Guohua, a Chinese physician at China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, looks at it generally as a result of the environmental force of heat. When a person has a weakening digestive system, the body will produce excessive toxic substances that flow into the bloodstream and body fluids. In Chinese medical terms, this condition manifests itself as an imbalance due to the overflow of Yang, causing excessive heat.

To restore imbalance, herbs that have the effects of relieving stagnation or accumulation of heat, and of purging toxins from the body, are generally chosen for therapy.

Acne formulas In prescribing herbal formulas, Chinese physicians generally do not take a ‘one dose fits all’ approach. Chinese herbal formulas are customized. Each person is presumed to present a unique pattern of harmony and disharmony.

Two patients are likely to be prescribed with different formulas if, for example, one was a nervous fellow with a dry tongue, while the other was easily tired and sleepy.

These are two acne formulas from a Chinese medicine book Chinese Herbs with Common Foods by Dr. Henry C. Lu a) 10 grams of lily (bai he), 100 grams of mung bean, 5 grams of rock sugar. b) 9 grams of peach kernel (tao ren), 30 grams of Job’s tears (yi yi ren), 9 grams of seagrass, 9 grams of kelp, salt as seasoning.

The focus of both western treatment and prescription therapy, according to Cathy McNease, from the Mount Sinai Medical Center, is to: (1) unclog pores; (2) kill bacteria; and (3) minimize oil. But first a word about lifestyle – moderation and regularity are good things, but not everyone can sleep eight hours, eat three good meals, and drink eight glasses of water a day. You can, however, still control your acne even if your routine is frantic and unpredictable.

Probably the most useful lifestyle change you can make is to apply hot compresses to pimples or pustules, and never to pick or squeeze pimples. Playing with pimples, no matter how careful and clean you are, nearly always makes bumps stay redder and bumpier longer. It’s just a mark that takes months to fade if left entirely alone.

Nutritional therapy Think back to the traditional Chinese medicine, the lungs control the skin, and

acne is commonly a condition of ‘heat’ in the lungs. The nutritional therapy is therefore to help cool the heat, cleanse the lungs, and also work externally on the healing process.

Remedies: 1.Blend a cucumber or low fat organic yogurt, apply externally; leave on for twenty minutes then wash off.

2. Rub watermelon rind on the acne.

3. Eat cucumber, carrot, watermelon or drink watermelon juice.

4. Drink dandelion and beet top tea.

5. Drink lukewarm water with two teaspoons of honey every morning on an empty stomach.

Avoid: fried foods, fatty foods, spicy foods, oily foods, coffee, alcohol, sugar, smoking, stress, and constipation, washing with chemicals or soap. Rather, wash with cool water. If the face is dirty, steam it with hot water to induce sweating; then wash with cold water.

Anything else you can do?

Cosmetics: Don’t be afraid to hide blemishes with flesh-tinted cover-ups or even foundation, as long as it is water-based or oil-free. There are many quality products available.

Facials: While not absolutely essential, steaming and ‘deep-cleaning’ pores is useful, especially for people with whiteheads or blackheads. Having these pores unclogged by a professional also reduces the temptation to do it yourself.

Pore strips: Pharmacies now carry, under a variety of brand names, strips which you put on your nose, forehead, chin, etc. to ‘pull out’ oil from your pores. These are, in effect, a do-it-yourself facial. They are inexpensive and safe, and work reasonably well if used properly.

BEIJING TODAY

Western methods

Editors: Yu Shanshan Chen Shasha Designer: Yang Gen

Acne is a very treatable condition using a combination of traditional Chinese medicine and functional nutrition. Either Chinese herbal treatment or western medical option alone is not complete enough a therapy to deal with controlling the acne problem. The beauty of Chinese medicine is that it provides an explanation as to why different people get different types of acne, which enables us to treat the root of the problem. Besides, one has to combine herbal medicine’s internal restoration effects with western medication’s precise, targeted power.

October 13 2006

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Travel China

20

Gansu, the mainland’s little Lhasa Tibetan paradise found in the village of Xiahe

By Tom Carter In these over-publicized times of China’s new railroad to Tibet, one might be better off avoiding the tourist circus than running away with it. Indeed, unless the reader has a certain fondness for overbooked hotels and intrusive, red hat-wearing tour groups, Lhasa is hardly the Tibetan delight that travel agencies continue to bill it as.

Fortunately, lesser-traveled Gansu province in northwest China offers the cultural charm of Tibet without the crowds.

Sharing borders with six other provinces except Tibet, it is physically unobvious that Gansu would be home to any kind of Tibetan population. This, coupled with the great shadows cast by the ever-popular neighboring Sichuan and Shaanxi, results in Gansu being one of China’s wellkept travel secrets.

The narrowly arching province makes it somewhat inconvenient to traverse, yet it is due to this shapely fact that the northern and southern regions offer dramatically different topography, climate and culture, lending to Gansu’s uniquely varying charm.

Situated adjacent to both Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces, the small city of Dunhuang in Gansu’s Hexi corridor is famed for its mountain-sized sand dunes and ancient Buddhist grotto cave art.

A tree-trimmed oasis hemmed by a limitless expanse of sand, Dunhuang, once an important outpost along the Silk Road, is now a travel destination as hot as the outlying deserts.

On the theoretically and geographically opposite end of the province, the mountainous terrain of Xiahe provides a cool, quiet respite from both the sweltering sands and disorderly tour groups of Dunhuang.

After threading through verdant grasslands grazing with yak, golden fields of wheat and undulating hills of the contiguous QinghaiTibetan plateau, Xiahe suddenly appears beneath the surreal blue sky like a monastic vision.

Of the Gannon Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Xiahe is in fact no more than a simple slat-wood settlement along the Daxia River physically and socially orbiting the impressive Labuleng, mainland China’s largest Tibetan monastery. Hugged up against the surrounding mountainside, the

Desert in Dunhuang

Prayer wheels

Yurt tent

picturesque estate known also as the Labrang Lamma monastery was built in 1710 and accommodates six Buddhist seminaries and over 500 monks of the Yellow Hat sect.

Buddhists from across the region come to worship at Labuleng, contributing to the colorful activity that gives Xiahe its attractive allure. A three-kilometer kora (spiritual walking circuit) halos the area and is heavy with foot traffic from dawn to dusk, whereby crimson-robed monks and natively dressed Amdo pilgrims spinning hand-held mani wheels orbit the monastery while breathlessly prostrating themselves and chanting mantras.

In between turning 1,200 vibrantly painted wooden prayer wheels, the resplendently ornamented nomads rest beneath stupas to chat and sip yak butter tea, a veritable portrait of Tibetan culture.

Visiting the holy capital city of Lhasa on the roof of the world may sound thrilling, but increasing occupation and rampant tourism has rapidly diluted it from the serene getaway it once was.

Xiahe, known as Little Lhasa, in the Gansu highlands is a more intimate, and conveniently closer, alternative for those desiring a secluded retreat of unadulterated Tibetan culture.

Tom Carter, a freelance writer and photographer from San Francisco, has lived in China the past two and a half years. He is currently backpacking through all 32 Chinese provinces.

Xiahe sarm girl

Transportation: 1. Flights from Beijing to Dunhuang Airport, daily at 7:30am (3 hours, 1,880 yuan) 2. From Langzhou to Xiahe, busses leave the North Bus Station at 7am, 8:30am and 2pm (5 hours, 25 yuan).

Accomodation: 1. In Dunhuang, the Feitian Binguan located on Mingshan Lu directly across the street from the bus terminal is a popular backpacker hangout, offering dorm rooms and hot-water showers for only 20 yuan.

2. There are a number small inns of varying standards along Renmin Jie in Xiahe, though the Tara and Overseas youth hostels on the west end of town seem to be the preferred choice (25 yuan for a dorm bed).

Regional cuisine: Hand-pulled noodles and thinner beef-noodle soup (saozi lamian) are provincial favorites.

Hui-Muslim influences to the north include heavily seasoned mutton/lamb kabob (yangrou chuan), fresh baked bread (nang) and bushels of fragrant peaches and watermelon. Tibetan fare is simpler, including the notorious yak butter tea (po cha), a pungent, thick, salty beverage that Tibetans consume habitually, and Tsampa, a nomadic staple of barley flour kneaded with butter tea to form an edible, nourishing dough.

Tibetan woman

Kora around stupa

Photos by Tom Carter

a Catalonian delight

An art sculpture on Barcelona’s beach

Photos by Janathan J. Wong

La Rambla, behind the bright lights and excitement is a grand feast in the eyes of pick pockets and thieves. In one night, I witnessed four different cases of bag snatching. On one occasion, a man walked into a hostel with oversized music headphones (so he can pretend to ignore the clerk at the front desk asking for his identity) and tried to walk out with a girls purse after stuffing it into his own backpack. At internet cafes, don’t use computers near the entrance with your bag sitting defenseless on the table.

Finally, if you plan to go out to drink at night, be smart and take just enough money and leave your credit cards and passport at home. Don’t be an easy target.

Talented and eccentric, his usage of organic shapes and natural motifs made him the premiere architect during the Modernisme movement in Catalonia that started in the late 1800s.

Gaudi’s most celebrated work; Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Cathedral) is the most visited site in Barcelona. The inspiration Gaudi draws from nature is in full display here as the massive structure undulates and flows in shape and contour. I was in awe seeing the cathedral from afar for the first time with its protruding gothic towers standing tall and spiraling towards the sky.

Up close the stylistic details are unlike any other I have seen.

Enigmatic sculptures of Biblical characters tell the story of Jesus in a lively fashion. Inside the cathedral, sunlight glazes through a variety of colorful stain glass windows, gently on to tall tree shaped pillars that faithfully support the ultra high, flower patterned ceiling.

For two Euros, you can take the elevator up one of the towers or you can take the stairs for free.

I took the stairs to work off some of the delicious Tapas from the

night before. At the top, I was rewarded with fantastic views of the city and peculiar details of colorful fruit sculptures on the roof of the church.

Despite construction having begun in 1882, Sagrada Familia is today less than half built. The limited funding that is available is provided only through public donation. It is anyone’s guess as to when this masterpiece may be completed.

When completed, the cathedral will have three facades and a total of fourteen towers. Twelve towers for the disciples, one for the Virgin Mary and one final massive tower for Jesus. Only the Nativity facade and eight of the disciple towers are complete so far. The Passion facade is under heavy construction and the third and final Gloria facade will be the most spectacular and grandiose.

One often gets tired of visiting the countless cathedrals in Europe but certainly not this one.

The museum in the basement of the cathedral is particularly enjoyable. Many of the original blueprints, models and sketches

by Gaudi are on display. Visitors can follow the many iterations of the design and get a glimpse of how meticulously Gaudi worked on his masterpiece. Inside a small room, a documentary of the cathedrals development plays in a continuous loop. Even if you find it dull, I would still recommend staying; if only to stay out of the sun to enjoy the particularly powerful air conditioning.

Jonathan J Wong (JJ) was working in Vancouver, Canada for an S&P500 Microchip Design Company listed on the NASDAQ. He quit his job in 2005 and traveled nine months around the world with his backpack and camera. JJ is also working as an independent securities trader.

JJ was born in Edmonton, Canada and educated in Canada and Hong Kong. He visited Barcelona, Spain in July 2005. He currently resides in Beijing.

Food:

A part of the Sagrada Familia sculpture

Four towers at Sagrada Familia

For an exquisite gastronomic experience, the restaurant Les Quinze Nuits should not be missed. The superb food and reasonable prices attract a long line up each evening half an hour before their doors even open at 8:30pm.

My personal favorites include the Catalayan Sausage for appetizer, ‘Black rice with squid in its own ink’ for the main course, and the ‘Nougat Ice-cream with custard and crème-brulee in Chocolate’ Catalayan dessert. Finally wash it all down with a glass of house red wine or share a jug of Sangria with friends and loved ones.

We liked the restaurant so much that we broke the cardinal rule of not returning to the same restaurant during travels (in order to try more places). We were there a total of four nights in a row and on the last night, one of the waiters humored me by saying that the bill would be on him if he was the boss.

Add: Plaza Reial 6 Tel: +34-93-317 30 75

Where to Stay:

Street performance in La Rambla

A sailing ship by the water front

Budget travelers to Barcelona have many options. Many Hostels and Guest houses are scattered around La Rambla. The Kabul Backpackers Hostel is centrally located and has a fantastic atmosphere. It is a member of the ‘Europe’s Famous Hostels’ network which in my experience, the best hostels belong.

For those looking for more comforts, Hotel Montecarlo and H10 Universitat Hotel are both fantastic choices.

Kabul Backpackers Hostel Add: Plaza Reial 17 Tel: +34-93-318 51 90 Email: info@kabul.es Hotel Montecarlo Add: La Rambla 124 Tel: +34-93-412 0404 Email: info@hotelmontecarlobarcelona.com H10 Universitat Hotel Add: Ronda Universitat 21 Tel: +34-93-342 78 50 Email: h10.universitat@h10.es

Editors: Yu Shanshan Zhao Hongyi Designer: Yang Gen

Safety Tips:

BEIJING TODAY

By Jonathan J. Wong Summer of 2005, during my month long travels in Spain, I found myself spending five fantastic days in Barcelona. In the heat of the Spanish summer, Barcelona is sizzling hot in every sense of the word. A Spanish Mecca of all night parties and day time culture, travelers of every kind descend on to Barcelona like bees to a hive for a piece of the action.

Barcelona is the capital of the Catalonia region. Located on the Iberian Peninsula surrounded by France, the Aragonia region, Valencia region and the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona has long been a crossroad of trade and culture.

The Catalonians are a fiercely proud people who identify strongly with their Catalonian language and culture. Their history of resisting influence from Madrid and desire for autonomy has long been a subject of contention. All public signs are first and foremost in Catalonian, followed by Spanish. Needless to say, Barcelona’s FC Barcelona football team rivalry with Madrid’s Real Madrid goes beyond just football.

Barcelona’s party town reputation can be fully experienced on La Rambla, a long pedestrian street that stretches from Plaza Espana in the north to the water front in the south. La Rambla is a 24/7 ostentatious party of street hawkers, families, performers, backpackers, illegal vendors, hustlers, pick-pockets, druggies and other unmentionable curiosities.

The heart and soul of La Rambla is Plaza Reial. A public square where the rowdy and the laid back all get to party together till sunrise drinking, dancing, singing and screaming. But if you find yourself too drunk and lying on the ground by 5am, beware.

The cleaning trucks and dump trucks will emerge with their industrial power washers to clean the place up, preparing for the next day of partying.

Barcelona’s most admired architect is the late Antoni Gaudi.

21

Travel abroad

Barcelona

October 13 2006

October 13 2006

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Han Manman Designer: Zhao Yan

Interns

22

Shanghai Interactive TV: Make the most of your talent

By Han Manman SITV has intern positions open in departments such as programming and in the technical department. Every intern gets a mentor to coach them through their work. For the interns doing internships lasting more than two months, we will arrange them work in different departments throughout the company to give them a better understanding of different roles and the overall concept of the company.

Every week, the intern needs to hand in their weekly internship keywork, input information and not using my brain. I began to classify the name cards and tried to remember the person’s name and the company. When I started work on a project a month later, I remembered all the suppliers’ names. Because of that, the project came together much more easily than it would have otherwise.

I have recently been working on program acquisitions. Firstly, you have to be a program expert.

You have to be familiar with the current domestic and international program market including the media market. Secondly, you should be a negotiating expert.

Cao Lu graduated from Wuhan UniYou need to barversity with a Master’s in mass commugain with the connication. She joined SITV in July after tent suppliers and a four-month internship. She is now at the negotiating responsible for the program-marketing table, remember department. to be neither serI did many internships before vile nor overbearcoming to SITV, for instance, at ing, and to use the smallest cost to radio stations, TV stations, PR gain the biggest resource. Third, companies and I once worked as you have to be a marketing expert. an English teacher at the New All the programs you buy must be Oriental School. Those expericonsidered in relation to the whole ences were all very useful for program marketing chain. Lastly, me. Students are always protected you have to be a client expert. by their parents and schools but Keeping a good relationship with when they step into the real world your clients is the key if you want they are faced with much comto work with them again in the petition and rivalry. By trying future. Your clients should always different jobs and experiencing come first. different things in life, we become I would urge students to be more mature and get to know confident and to work hard on what is suitable for us and what every task. Being creative is also we really want. important; boring work should The theme of my graduate not be an excuse for you becompaper was new media. I am intering a working machine. Also ested in the development of digital learn to help out those who have media and SITV is, in many peohelped you. Repay every favor ple’s minds, a flagship company and you will go far. as it was one of the first to I would also urge students expand into digital media. This to grasp every opportunity that is was exactly the kind of industry I given to you during your internwanted to work in. ship; it will help you stand out I was a bit of a maverick from the crowd. In my first week at school and I always felt incredat SITV, our company invited a ibly confident. But when I started famous Korean film star to do work, I found I was only a small a promotion in Shanghai. At the cog in the system. My father once time my mentor was on a busitold me ‘The lower you put yourness trip. I was given an incredself, the further you can reach’. I ibly important task - to sign realized that if I worked hard my the star’s performance agreement talent would shine through and with the star’s company. After one day, I would reach my goal. getting the agreement, I was All I did in my first week at assigned to accompany the star SITV was input thousands name for his whole Shanghai journey. cards into a computer. On the When it finished, I felt tired but second day, my head was swimexcited; I knew I had done a good ming. On the third day, I knew job and had made the most of the I couldn’t carry on doing donopportunity.

Comments from Wang Qi: Cao Lu is an energetic and enthusiastic girl. She is very patient and always willing to help others. Her English is excellent and she has strong negotiating skills. Cao’s enthusiasm for the work and her strong communication skills impressed me a lot when I interviewed her. Her excellent English also made her stand out from the crowd.

report to the company, which helps the company to know how the intern is doing and what work to set them for the following week.

When the internship comes to the end, the intern’s mentor, department executive and HR chief will all evaluate the performance of the intern and make a record of it in case the intern may apply for a full-time position after graduation. Students who make a particularly good impression are sometimes offered jobs immediately after their internship ends.

–Wang Qi, HR manager of SITV I applied for the SITV production department with the desire to become a TV program producer. But I was recommended to the marketing department to do public Nie Xiaojing graduated from East China Normal University with a Master’s in economics.

She did a four-month internship last year and was offered a full-time job after graduating in July. She is now a public relations assistant.

relations assistant work after the interview with the company HR. I guess that was because all my other internships were in marketing and public affairs. I became the public relation manager’s intern after being interviewed by her.

The Shanghai TV festival was held during my internship.

It is a big annual event and a very important event for our Shanghai media group.

Every year, SITV will join and organize the exhibition and forum. From each May, our PR department needs to start preparing for event.

In 2005, high-tech TV was still not available to most citizens. We set up a High Definition TV exhibition at the festival. In order to promote the exhibition and to raise public awareness about HD TV, our company decided to hold an HD knowledge competition. I was assigned to design and organize the competition. It was a lot of responsibility for an intern but also a challenge for me.

The work involved contacting the audience, setting up and buying awards and organizing the staging of the entire

event. I spent a month preparing for it. The competition finished successfully. When seeing reports about it on TV and in the newspapers I felt a great sense of achievement.

The event also left a good impression on my boss.

Although PR work is not really linked with my major, I felt the job would help me to become a more sociable.

Also, PR is interesting work and designing and organizing events is a lot of fun. Only someone who is involved in the work can understand how detailed and hard the work is.

Not only do you need to be creative, but you also need to be patient and persistent.

Finding a job is not difficult, you must be confident and believe in yourself. To find work that you really like is very important. Do as many internships as possible to prepare yourself, increase your confidence and give you a better sense of what career is right for you. You will only realize your potential if you are doing a job you really like. Last but not least, try to start off in a good company so you will have a decent platform from which to develop.

Comments from Wang Qi: Xiaojing is a very clever girl. She works carefully and methodically and identifies strongly with our company. She is also a great team player.

During my SITV internship I spent most of my time studying promotional trailer productions with an editor.

Although he was busy with his own work he found time to help me out. I remember that he once told me to learn about TV engineering in my spare

time, as it would be good for my future development. At the time I thought that TV engineering was too technical and too unrelated to my major but I still followed his advice.

I soon found that my new knowledge of engineering meant I could do favors for other editors. I was not directly involved in the production work; I just started doing very basic work like tidying up documents and writing program captions. It was a bit boring at times but I knew that

in the long run it would be valuable experience.

Even though I just had one mentor, I always helped other colleagues to do what I could, like doing DVD recordings and program continuity, which was not only good practice for myself but also gave me the chance to become familiar with different departments in the company.

Interns should do as much as possible and have a good attitude. It will all pay off in the end.

Wang Hua graduated from Tongji University with a BA in radio and television directing He started his SITV internship when he was a senior and got offered a full-time job in July after graduating. He currently works in a program department for original productions.

Comments from Wang Qi: Wang Hua is very hard working. During the internship, Wang reached the standards of a full-time employee. He studied new things all the time and always worked on improving the quality of his work. He is career-minded and has a technical background, which is exactly what we look for.

October 13 2006

Zhao Donghai is a student at the University of Science and Technology.

By Zhao Donghai You know there are thousands of things that make you happy. How many of them you’ll remember? And how many will give you a constant happiness? Now at least, I experienced such one thing that will forever live in my heart.

There is a place called Children’s Town in Shunyi of Beijing raising orphans, Some of whose parents died and some of whose were in jail. One day in September, my classmates and I went to the Children’s Town with a contribution of 1020.32yuan, which was collected in our campus, having cost us over 3 days’ time. About 15 big bags of clothes that were also donation had been sent there the day before we arrived.

It was my second time I went there. Last time, I just helped them with some labour work like digging in the field. This time was different because we brought them more help which satisfied me more than last time. We were warmly welcomed. As we approaching I saw things were better, consoled that this orphan home had been loved by society.

When we got there, smiles appeared on children’s faces. While finishing some affairs, we had the appreciation from the teachers and when they told us children loved these clothes we collected, I couldn’t tell my happiness.

He children are mostly very lovely and attractive.

They soon enjoy playing games with us, like kicking shuttlecock. They looked so carefree. When they were laughing, making faces, running like other normal children, you couldn’t find they lost their parents. But one boy distinguished himself by standing aside, looking at others playing without a word. Then I came to him, “hello, why not play?” He just looked me in the eyes, a little shy and a bit nervous. “Are you willing to show me around,” I asked, “and take me to your place?” “En,” he said. On the way to his place, I succeeded in acquiring his trust, and knew that he came there 3 months ago and he got some friends and often played with them in their own place – a garden. In our talk I referred to his life before going there. “My father was in jail in Heibei province. I lived once in a similar town there, but it cost 3000yuan per year, and it was too expensive, en – this place is good, and I have to pay only 300yuan per year.

It’s much better.” He added, “I study Chinese, maths, and science here, and I learn hard...” He became more active later. I hoped it was useful.

Kirk Kenney Replies (Kirk Kenney is a teacher in New Channel school.)

Firstly, I would like to say how moved I was to read this essay! I am happy to know that there are young people like Zhao Donghai who are using their time to help others less fortunate than them!

I just used a word from the title, ‘happy’. Remember to write capital letters for important words in your title and words that are longer than three letters. The first word in your title should always be capitalized even if it is a short word like ‘a’. ‘Happy’ and ‘day’ should also start with capital letters because they are important. I believe that if every person could help others in some way, we would really live in a wonderful world!

The essay was powerful because Zhao Donghai spoke to the readers in a personal way by referring to them in the very first sentence and by asking them questions. The first couple of questions should be phrased a little differently though.

I would write, ‘How many of them will you remember in the future?

And how many will give you a constant feeling of happiness? Now, at least I have experienced one situation that will live forever in my heart.’ Notice that I changed the word, ‘thing’ to ‘situation’ because “thing” sounds too general whereas ‘situation’ is more specific. Strive to be specific when you write and give plenty of examples.

The second paragraph is an excellent description of Children’s Town. I would add that it is in Shunyi district in Beijing and that it is an orphanage: ‘There is an orphanage called Children’s Town in Beijing’s Shunyi district. The orphan’s parents either died or are in jail.’ It’s better to write out numbers in your essay unless they are very large. To make the second sentence sound more natural, I would write: ‘We spent more than three days collecting over 1,000 yuan on campus which we donated to Children’s Town in September. About 15 enormous bags of clothes were also donated the day before we arrived. It was my second time there.’ As for the last sentence

in the second paragraph, I would write, ‘I felt comforted by the fact that these orphans were being taken good care of and consoled that they were loved by society.’

Let’s talk about the third paragraph. There is a tiny mistake in the first sentence. It should read, ‘When we got there, smiles appeared on the children’s faces.’ We need the definite article, ‘the’ here because we are referring to the specific children in the orphanage. The word ‘affairs’ is a bit too formal in this case. For example, we can talk about business affairs. I would simply write, ‘While finishing some work, the teachers came to extend their appreciation to us for our help and they told us that the children loved the clothes we had collected. I felt so happy at that moment that I was speechless!’

Finally, let’s think about the last paragraph. The following expresses the way I would rewrite it: ‘Most of the children seemed delighted to spend time with us! They soon started to play some games with us like football and badminton. They looked so carefree. It was not apparent from their joy and laughter that some of them had in fact lost their parents.’ However, (The word ‘but’ should be in the middle of the sentence instead of at the beginning) one boy distinguished himself by standing off to one side and looking at the others playing without saying a word. When I asked him to join the others, he just looked me in the eyes. I could tell that he was shy and nervous, so I asked him if he would be willing to show me around and take me to his place. He just said, ‘Okay’. Notice that I replaced ‘En’ with “okay”. It seems to me that ‘en’ is a sound the boy made like ‘uh’ in English or it was just his way to say okay. I would also remove ‘en’ later in the last paragraph because it is a little confusing. The rest of the paragraph was beautifully written. At the end of the paragraph, the child said the he learns hard.

It would be better to write, ‘I study hard.’ The last two sentences could be combined into one since they are a little short on their own. For example, ‘The boy became more active as we continued our conversation, so I felt that spending time with him had been very useful!’

Thank you again Zhao Donghai for being a volunteer! Let’s all volunteer to help those in need!

Lost in translation

Chinglish

happy day

This column aims to identify chinglish in public areas. If you see any chinglish signs, please take a picture and send them to Shirley_chen@ynet.com with your name and address.

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Photo by Du Chunqi

By Gareth George Wine bar of Fu The head of bridge Market Back to front. Topsy turvy.

Head over heels. Nothing wrong with the spelling here, but a lack of English grammar has led this sign writer to get his sentences all muddled up. I think the problem is the translations are just too literal – literally word for word.

Take ‘The head of bridge Market’ for example. In English, we don’t get too poetic with our bridges, so you won’t find us humanizing (or dragonizing) them with heads or tails. ‘Market by the bridge’ sums up all we want to say. There’s nothing wrong with ‘Wine bar of Fu’ really – we understand it, it just sounds clunky. We wouldn’t say ‘Cafe of Hard Rock’ or ‘Bar and grill of Dino’, so we’d best just switch it to Fu’s Wine Bar.

Road rage

Photo by Du Chunqi

By Gareth George Look at this character. You’d think what with having a slice of lemon for a steering wheel and a baked bean for a head, he’d have enough to worry about. Now someone’s telling him something and he doesn’t have a clue what they’re on about. And not because he has no ears – it’s written down, for crying out loud. ‘Waste discarding prohibited’. Problem with this sign is it likes its thesaurus too much.

‘Waste’ is too broad - ‘trash’, ‘litter’ or ‘rubbish’ are better for what the sign seems to be referring to. ‘Discarding’ and ‘prohibited’ just have too many syllables – baked bean head man is driving. How’s he supposed to read all that? ‘No littering’. Short, to the point. Much better. More fun? ‘Drop trash and we’ll trash you (then drop you in prison)’. Hang on, that’s longer than the original...

Editors: Yu Shanshan Chen Shasha Designer: Yang Gen

A

Chinglish on the way

BEIJING TODAY

Follow Beijing Today This column is open to those who want to improve their English but lack foreign specialized help. We will review the English articles you send to Shirley_chen@ynet.com.

Suggestions will be given on how to improve the Chinglish sentences in your articles.

All interesting stories are welcomed. Please be sure the article is written in English, around 500 words in total. Please do not forget to include your name and address.

October 13 2006

Weekend

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Friday, October 13 Exhibition Chen Shaoping solo exhibition

Related to the Past – Yang Liu solo exhibition Where: Beijing Art Now Gallery, Beijing Worker Stadium, opposite Gate 12, Chaoyang When: Tue-Sun 11am-7pm, until November 2 Admission: Free Tel: 6551 1632

Sunday, October 15 the last warrior to the sorceress.

Where: French Culture Center, 18 Guangcai International Apartment, West Road of Workers’ Stadium, Chaoyang When: 8pm, until October 14 Admission: 10-20 yuan Tel: 6553 2627

Movie

Where: Melodic Gallery, 14 Jianguomenwai Street, opposite Friendship Store, Chaoyang When: Daily 10am-4: 30pm, until October 25 Admission: Free Tel: 6515 8123

Kirikou et la Sorcièr A fascinating animation of an African legend. In a little village in Africa, a boy named Kirikou is born. But he’s not a normal boy.

His mother tells him how an evil sorceress has dried up their spring and devoured all males of the village except for one. Hence little Kirikou decides he will accompany

Saturday, October 14 Exhibition

BEIJING TODAY

Editors: Yu Shanshan Qiu Jiaoning Designer: Zhao Yan

Lin Fei’ s Oil Painting Exhibition

Where: New Millennium Gallery, 3818 Warehouse, No 2 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang When: Daily 10am-7pm, until November 2 Admission: Free Tel: 6432 4122

Connecting East and West – Bo Yun solo exhibition Where: Creation Art Gallery, North end of Ritan Donglu, Chaoyang When: Daily 10am-7pm, until October 20 Admission: Free Tel: 8561 7570 Shadowland – Zhou Jirong solo exhibition Where: Red Gate Gallery, Dongbianmen Watchtower, Chongwen When: Daily 10am-5pm, until November 12 Admission: Free Tel: 6525 1005

a modern day Noah, this little group has managed to defy the furiously raging elements...

Where: French Culture Center, 18 Guangcai International Apartment, West Road of Workers’ Stadium, Chaoyang.

When: 3pm Admission: 10-20 yuan Tel: 6553 2627

Exhibition Cuteness – Works by Chen Fei and Luo Hui

Movie The Frog’s Prophecy A flood has hit our planet and an unusual group of people is all that remains. Led by Ferdinand,

Outdoor

Stage in November Music Violin Concert – Composer Chen Gang’s Violin Concerto Who: Violinist Pan Yinlin Where: Peking Universality Concert Hall, inside Peking University, Haidian When: 7pm, November 2 Admission: 40-80 yuan Symphony Concert Who: China Philharmonic Orchestra Where: Zhongshan Music Hall, Inside Zhongshan Park, Dongcheng When: 7:30pm, November 4 Admission: 50-680 yuan String Quartet Concert Who: Rucner Quartet from Croatia Where: Beijing Concert Hall, No 1 Beixinhua Jie, Xicheng When: 7:30pm, November 10 Admission: 30-680 yuan

China Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Concert Series Who: China Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Where: Beijing Concert Hall, No 1 Beixinhua Jie, Xicheng When: 7:30pm, November 18 Admission: 30-680 yuan China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra Concert Series Who: China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra Where: Beijing Concert Hall, No 1 Beixinhua Jie, Xicheng When: 7:30pm, November 19 Admission: 60-580 yuan Lin Junjie Vocal Concert Who: Chinese pop singer Lin Junjie, also known as JJ Lin. Where: Great Hall of the People, on the west side of Tiananmen Square, Xicheng

Cao Na’s Innovative Chinese Watercolour Paintings Where: Beijing Central Art Gallery & Cultural Venue, Riverville Square, No 1 District One, Tianzhu, Shunyi When: Daily 10am-10pm, until September 30 Admission: Free Tel: 6450 8483, 6450 8646

When: 7:30pm, November 19 Admission: 180-1280 yuan

Opera and Drama A Doll’s House Who: Chicago Oriental Art Troupe Where: Beijing Oriental Pioneer Theater, No 8-2 Dongdan Santiao, Dongcheng When: 7:30pm, November 3-5 Admission: 50-180yuan Secret Love for the Peach Blossom Spring Who: Directed by Stan Lai, performed by Wang Luoyong, Huang Lei, Yuan Quan...

Where: Capital Theater, No 22 Wangfujing Dajie, Dongcheng When: 7:30pm, November 18-26 Admission: 50-680 yuan (By Qiu Jiaoning)

Where: Beijing Tokyo Art Projects, Dashanzi Art District, No 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang When: Tue-Sun 10am-6:30pm, until November 12 Admission: Free Tel: 8457 3245 In These Parts – Zhang Hui solo exhibition

Where: Long March Space A, Dashanzi Art District, No 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang When: Tue-Sun 11am-7pm, until November 26 Admission: Free Tel: 6438 7107

Great Wall Hike Where: Simatai section of the Great Wall in Miyun County, Beijing, remains one of the best options for those who want more of a challenge from the Great Wall, steep and unrestored. It connects to another section of the Great Wall, Jinshanling, in Hebei Province. The hike will start from Jinshanling and continue all the way to Simatai. A bus will pick you up at Simatai at the end of the tour.

When: Meet at the Chinese Culture Club (Beijing) for group transportation at 8:30am.

Cost: 250 yuan.

Tel: 6432 9341, 6432 1041